Aftermath
by lPancaked
Summary: What happens after the events of Legacy unfold? What happens behind the rescues at International Rescue, and how will it cope under new threats? P.S. I do NOT own anything related to Thunderbirds or Thunderbirds are Go, this is just a fan fiction on what might happen. Rated T for some swearing.
1. Chapter 1 - Scott

**Please note – this is meant to be a carry on from Thunderbirds Are Go, after the episode** _ **Legacy**_ **where both Matteo island and Kayo's relationship with the Hood is revealed. I am aware that another series is probably going to come out during this, and I can try and link this to the episodes if possible if that is what you wish. I am also aware that, yes, this may not be 100% accurate, this is just some random ideas for books compressed into what happens after** _ **Legacy.**_ **So, enjoy! (Also, I made this so that Kayo was adopted by Jeff before he disappeared). This is my first book and this is just my tester to see how to publish books on FanFiction.**

* * *

 **Chapter 1 – Scott**

Mud. It's what you began to hate after a good handful of missions. _Mud_. Something about mud just makes you feel tired, and makes all of your muscles ache. Oh well, at least the people had gotten out safely. Following an earthquake that happened in Japan, a storm decided it would be a brilliant time to open the heavens, and any houses that were near mountains that weren't already wrecked were toppled upon by mud. It was extremely unfortunate for everybody in Japan, they never deserved it. Colonel Casey and I had already had a discussion about it – the GDF would sort out rehoming everybody effected by the earthquake if we would sort out helping trapped people. All of us had to help at one point at least– Me, Virgil, Gordon, Alan and Kayo had helped directly at the scenes, John was on constant monitoring of the Pacific plate which had caused the 7.3 earthquake, Brains was working with the architects who would be responsible for rebuilding Japan's cities to make it as close to earthquake-proof as possible, and Penelope was helping at the moment by going to events that were designed to help raise money for rebuilding places.

Today in particular had been a nightmare. Gordon was trying to get an eight-year-old child out of her mud-drenched home, when the house nearly toppled on them. It was an absolutely heart-wrenching moment when we all thought they'd be smashed to a pulp. Gordon was just coming out of the entrance for the house with the kid (later we found out her name was Annie) when it suddenly shifted. Kayo, who was nearby, had just yanked Gordon out from the house a few seconds before it was destroyed. Thank God Kayo was there.

Kayo. It was only a few days ago we learnt she was related to the Hood. It still didn't seem right. The sweet little thing that was our sister (well, adopted sister), related to the man who killed Dad. Well, I say sweet. When we were younger, she was the tough one who would put everybody in place, sure, but she was sweet in the way that only we would understand. The loyal little girl who came to the island when she was just five, practically only skin and bones, small for her age, the girl Dad had taken home with him, the girl who always sat on the stairs at mealtimes watching with constant caution, the girl what constantly sat in the shadows near Dad. I could remember Dad said he had brought somebody home, when I was 11 and Alan was nearing the age of 5. Virgil and Alan immediately hoped it was a pet. Instead, Dad just looked at the doorway, where we could just make out the outline of a girl, smaller than Alan at the time. As soon as she worked out that we were all looking at her, she backed further behind the door. Dad had called her names a few times, but it seemed she wasn't going to move. We were all told to go down to the kitchen, and whilst we all went, we could just make out Dad picking her up. From then on, she just stayed in the shadows, where she seemed comfortable and, eventually, she began to try talking to us.

Now, she was a confident girl, finally taller than Alan (who she was 18 days older than) and able to so much as punch somebody to knock them out cold. Awkwardly, we had found this out when she knocked Gordon out cold. In her defense, she probably didn't realize she could do that and he was only out for a few minutes tops. Then again, she didn't seem too shocked, either. And then we get news that she's the Hood's niece. We hadn't been able to have a massive chat with her about it because we were all called out to rescues concerning the earthquake (excluding TB3), which probably helped her, but still. The conversation once that occurred as soon as she hung up comms was awful.

"It makes no sense!"

"Actually, it does," Virgil had said rather blankly at the time.

"You're not suggesting she's ACTIVELY helping the Hood?!" I was surprised how quickly Gordon stood up for her. Normally, he's making one of his utterly painful jokes about things, and everybody would have expected one then. But instead he was quick to defend her, which was not expected, but afterwards Virgil had pointed out both of them are up and doing sports at stupid o' clock in the morning. When you look at it like that it's not surprising.

My thoughts were interrupted by the inflatable ball used for the pool was lobbed at my face. I stared out from the kitchen window I was leaning against to see Kayo and Gordon staring at me, smirking. Throwing the ball back, I walked down to the pool to see what they wanted.

"Good morning, Sleeping Beauty," Gordon said as I walked down to him and Kayo. Gordon was swimming in his swimming trunks, whereas Kayo, sitting on the edge of the pool, was in her swimming suit and had shorts on over the top. "Came out of Dreamland to join us, did ya?"

"How long was I daydreaming for?" I asked, sitting down next to Kayo.

"'Bout ten-fifteen minutes?" She looked at Gordon for confirmation, who just nodded. Then she turned back to me, "What's on your mind?" Now how could I answer that? Just turn around to her and be there like "Yeah, I was just thinking about you and how you're the Hood's niece." Now that WOULD scare her off. Gordon started laughing.

"Probably that Marie girl or whatever her name is. Marie, Mary?"

"Marion," I mumble under my breath, seeing Gordon exchange a look with Kayo, "And I only met her once. Nothing happened. Besides, who fancies a people who try and kill you?"

"Oh come on, the only decent ones you get are the ones that try to kill ya. It's probably not personal," Kayo said, leaving receiving two dodgy looks from me and Gordon. "Just sayin," She began again, "That doesn't mean she's bad."

I didn't have the slightest clue how to answer that. Thankfully, John called at that moment, with his normal monotone speaking, "Scott, we have a situation"


	2. Chapter 2 - Gordon

Chapter 2 – Gordon

We all ambled up to the lounge where John was waiting. It only took a second for me and Kayo to dry off from the pool, all of which Scott kept blushing. Nobody could deny it, he fancied her. And he did a rubbish job of hiding it. To be fair, she wasn't bad, but still. Scotty had a crush.

"Lemme guess…" I said, "Japan?"

"Stop being a smarty-pants," Scott said, as John continued.

"The Pacific plate has been active for over a week now, most shifts heading west towards Japan and the other islands of Asia. But it's broken that pattern and headed east in a massive jolt a few minutes ago. The main area affected is Ecuador. The movement has caused an earthquake of magnitude 5.7. I've already called Thunderbird Two and got Virgil and Alan to stop with medical help for now, but we'll need somebody to observe the area and report back."

"Okay, I'm on my way," Scott said, pulling down the lamps next to Kayo's comms, turning in to launch TB1. John watched for a second, then turned back to me and Kayo. "Now he's out the way," he said, looking at me, "There's a fishing-troller on the west of China that is reporting a failing propulsion system and losing oxygen. Launch Thunderbird 4 and take extra oxygen tanks and masks. And Kayo," he gestured for me to leave before looking at Kayo. "The GDF have already reported they found somebody linked to the loss of the leftover fossil fuels, but when I questioned… They didn't seem that…" he paused.

"GDF seem dodgy about a theft, go check it out without telling Scott, don't let the GDF see you, blah blah blah." Kayo said, not even waiting for a reply. We both made our way down to launch.

You know what you begin to hate after a while? Prank calls. Because there are CLEARLY some people have NOTHING BETTER TO DO WITH THEIR LIVES. But hey, not everybody does rescues nearest dammit 24/7. Still, the GDF came and arrested the people and confiscated the ship, so that all went down. But there was one interesting thing – Colonel Casey wasn't on the scene.

Okay, so maybe that came out a little wrong. Sure, maybe she was busy, but it just didn't add up with the situation Kayo was watching. Normally, if she hears we want the Global Defence Force to arrest somebody due to something going wrong on a mission, she's normally there asking us questions. But this time, there's some other guy who just reminds me of some villain in a spy movie – dodgy and somebody who you'd avoid for as long as possible. Dressed in a black version of the uniform Colonel Casey would normally wear, with sunglasses that reflected everything, meaning whenever I looked at him, I just had a reflection of myself looking at me (well, a reflection that looks like it's been in one of those Mirror houses at a fayre or theme park). I realise there's probably a reasonable explanation, but there's a part of my squid-sense that doesn't think this is just a coincidence. I immediately send a call to Kayo to ask if anything seems out of order on her side of the story. But there was just a short beep of static. And not the static used when she pulls a move typical to her and turns off comms.

She was being blocked.


	3. Chapter 3 - Kayo

Chapter 3 – Kayo

 _(Slightly overlapped with Chapter 2)_

It took almost two hours to get to the sight, and another half hour to get past their security system to make sure I was invisible to sensors and then into the danger zone, a grey warehouse surrounded by fifty acres minimum of grass every way you look, before the fence, at least ten feet in height, topped with barbed wire loops and dotted with lights to check for crafts who got close to the area. I won't lie, they did a really good job with their system. But maybe it would have been harder for me if we didn't use to have that type of security system for International Rescue, before everybody knew about it (once we became public we rebooted and altered it). After that, it didn't take a second to land on the sun dish and climb out of Thunderbird Shadow. After some debate, I settle her back down horizontally, got the bike out and then park her on the dish again. Just in case I fancy a chase-down after this. In this time, the sky had gone from inky blue to jet black, webbed with white smears.

I could make out a way to the warehouse – from where I was parked, two GDF quad jets were parked about ten metres away from me, one in front of the other, then God knows what in crates near the warehouse, a 100m sprint between them and the quad jets, and then just a climb up ivy to get to one of the top windows. I had managed to learn one thing about these kinds of warehouses when potential threats were inside – entering through the main doors was like suicide, literally going up to them and being there like "hey, how ya doin'? Good, good. Hey, do you mind shooting me?"; the bottom three windows, you can easily be seen, even if you dress in pure black and wear a black mask and never move; and the top window, well, the jump down to the supports was also suicide. The middle two windows were best – they were close to the supports and people don't bother to look that high. Now it's just to get over there.

Double checking there was nobody nearby, I ran towards the first quad jet, then swiftly to the other one. Triple checking nobody was around, sprinting as quickly and quietly as I could and on to the crates. I managed to hop over part of the pile that wasn't too high, before a light beam shot right in front of my feet. I just manage to squat behind a crate before the golden ray filled over my head. I stared at the shadow the crate made. An easy way to tell if people can see you – if you can't be seen in any shadows, then nobody can see you. Shadows, good things they are. I'm pretty sure I heard somebody say "Probably just a rat, just leave it" followed by a few hisses/murmurs before the beam faded away into the inky night. I let out a breath I didn't realise I was holding, then went over to the snarled and tousled ivy. Thankfully, it was entwined itself into the building somewhere along the way, so climbing is extremely easy. I was through the right window within mere seconds.

The support was a lot harder to cross than usual – it was made from hollow aluminium rather than thick steel bars typically used. After a few steps I master that if I lower my centre of gravity to my knees, it's barely audible. Basically, just squat and run. It's almost a minute before I'm in the centre of the building, where I manage to go down to the lower supports. It's then when I hear the metallic sound of metal smashing against each other, and for a brief second I think I may have knocked one of the supports awkwardly and gravity has finally taken its toll, and it's only when I see a group of men walk in that the relaxation hits me. I can make out a tall woman in blue uniform walk in – hey, guess who? Colonel Casey! - followed by two GDF soldiers either side of her, and at least half a dozen soldiers behind her. Okay, now I'm intrigued. She walks to the centre of the room very professionally, before looking around. I won't lie, it honestly looked like a badly-programmed video game – with no actually decent programmed transition between either of them, so it almost jumps. Deciding it may actually be a good idea to watch this one, I perch myself near a window, just in case I need to make a last-minute runner, and sit cross-legged, watching. A few more minutes passes before another man, a shady man, comes in. I'm just about to see if I can get a clear enough scan when I see it's being blocked. One unanswered call from TB4 a few minutes ago. Blocked. As soon as I'm about to try and send a call, they start talking.

"Lieutenant Marcus," Colonel Casey said. Lieutenant?

"Colonel. The set-up on the coast of Asia was a success. The aquanaut took the bait and we got the scan of the ship. The data's all in the laptop with Lieutenant Carter." Set up? Scan of the ship?!

"Okay," Colonel Casey said, and suddenly I wasn't treating her as a friend, a friend of Jeff, a friend of one of the only adults who didn't end up turning on me. I saw her as a traitor. After giving all of them dirty looks, a blonde girl with enough makeup on to melt her face off. She suddenly whips out a grey laptop – geez, laptops were last used in 2020 or some distant time ago – and what looked like a wire to download the information. That's when I realise I can't let them do that. And in that moment I couldn't give one about what Scott would say, I couldn't let any of my brothers be at risk. I suddenly start looking for something to throw, something sharp. Before long my eyes fall of a piece of metal – probably shrapnel from something – which would serve well as a throwing knife. I get the grip in my hand – I realise it's gnawing itself into my hands, and blood is already dripping out from underneath my suit, but I honestly couldn't give one at the moment – and I send the shrapnel flying at the laptop.

A second passes, which to me feels forever, maybe due to the pain of the two massive gauges in my hand, before the laptops explodes into a white flaming light, with Blondie – her new nickname – dropping it almost immediately, avoiding getting electrocuted. Within a split second everybody is looking at me. They probably recognise me. And then I'm running for dear God.

As I'm sprinting down the beam, I can hear bullets firing, then ricocheting around the iron roof. I try not to focus on the bullets, just focus on running. Run, run, run, and jump to the next support. Run, run run, run _run runrunrunrunrun_! And then I'm at the window again, and as I jump out I signal for TBS and then turn off all links to International Rescue. I'm not risking them. I can't. But just before I'm able to land on the ship a sharp pain hits my side, and then I'm falling. It's me hitting the ground that sends me into unconsciousness.


	4. Chapter 4 - John

Chapter 4 – John

"Gordon, you're going to get prank calls no matter what. No point in yelling at me about it," The last fifteen minutes had been filled with my annoying brother's whines filling the whole satellite about, and I quote, "Stupid bored guys who have nothing better to do with their lives", and whilst I pointed out that it's our job to answer no matter what, he clearly wasn't listening. Typically in my brother's lecture-athlon we have four stages, each lasting what feels like triple the time it actually does: a very detailed rundown on what happened, whilst listing his thoughts on the situation, then about why he thinks they did, it, then how it could have been prevented – which included the word 'or' ten thousand times -, and THEN how it interrupted International Rescue. It was only Gordon and Alan who had developed things like this about their rescues. Alan just did the first stage for about two hours straight. Currently, I was stuck in the how-it-could-have-been-prevented stage. "No but," Gordon ambled on, "He could have just gotten one of the easy cleaning jobs at the GDF and then none of this could have happened! Literally, you need NO qualifications for that. Or he could have worked in a fast food place. Or, even better, if he DID have any qualifications, he could be USING them! Like, scientist or chef or business man or teacher or a retail worker or underwriter or-"

"John," The sudden voice of EOS behind me made me jump. To be fair, whenever you get a sudden voice of a six-year-old girl behind you it's alarming, especially if you didn't hear her come in. I sigh, "One moment EOS, I'm busy." I'm almost sure she's going to yell at me to put her new processors in, as she's been snapping at me all week to do it, but currently, the lecture that I can ignore (providing I say 'yes' or 'well maybe he'll learn' a few times) seems a lot more appealing than rewiring processors.

"But John,"

"EOS, later."

"John!"

"EOS, I'll do your processors later. I'm helping Gordo out now." And I'm pretty sure I hear Gordon go 'Gordo _nnnnnnn_ '.

"Fine," EOS went as I turned back to Gordon, but just before the door closes behind her, I hear, "I see you don't care if your sister's dying."

"What?!" I turn around, already seeing she's left. "John, what's up? Gordon obviously didn't hear her, which makes sense because I only just heard. "I'll call you back Gordon." I hang up, then race after EOS. I can already tell who she's on about, because Kayo's the only person EOS will call my sister (I class Penny as well, but EOS has yet to meet her and give her the classification as my sister. Kayo only got that because one day when I was calling her she stuck up for EOS). If she said 'brother' then THAT would have been harder to guess; I already saw it wasn't Gordon, leaving Scott, Virgil and Alan who were in treacherous conditions to begin with. But Kayo, although there was minimal chances of being drowned my mud or having a house topple on her or even an earthquake beneath her, there was a lot more that could kill her, and whereas my brothers may get scrapes or bruises if they avoided death, Kayo would get life-limiting wounds. I finally managed to catch up with my stubborn little AI, she was in the room opposite there, or rather her 'room', using the projector in there. "EOS, what's happened to her?"

"Oh, I thought you were talking to your brother," she said icily, the lights on her camera purple-blue. I had only just found out they can go blue a month or two, and they can go two shades of blue – pale blue was sadness and purple-blue was a mix of betrayal and upset. The betrayal factor had made me feel corrupt along with the fact I was scared for Kayo and wanted to throw up the only thing I had eaten – a bagel. "Besides," she said, "You shouldn't be in here. You didn't even knock. And I'm dealing with it. Go back to your precious brother and his stupid rant." Each word felt like a dagger, and whilst I realised she was just upset and trying to stay strong despite her sadness, I felt almost offended. I try to be gentler. "Sorry, I just… I just thought you were going to…" I was trying to pick my words carefully, which I already knew I was rubbish at. "To ask if I would do your processors and… I just wanted to listen to my brother first because..."

"Let me guess. You wanted to listen to your brother because," she pulled a voice which was probably meant to sound like my voice, but managed to sound more like Scott when he was eight, "You never get to see them because they all work on earth and you're here in the solitude with me and you always want to make sure they're okay because, at the end of the day, they're your family. And they will always help you no matter what and they'll always be there for you and you want to make sure you do the same for them." She had turned to look at me slightly, and I had noticed the navy colour of her camera was going paler and paler, until they stood between the two colours that I had discovered. Her words also had gone from as icy as Satan to dejected and breaking occasionally, like you'd expect to hear before somebody began to cry. The screen with Kayo's statistics on constantly kept receiving data, but I noticed the info being put in was getting slower. Constant, but slower than her normal rapid inputting. She began to speak in her normal voice again, not imitating but still in the dejected tone. "Yeah, I know. You've always had family who would never hurt you. But I haven't. Everybody was out for me at one point, including you. Nobody wanted me. They just wanted me gone. Out of their lives. You don't know what it's like to be isolated. And I could never talk about it to anybody." Her voice was breaking like mad now, but she was intent on finishing. "Until that day I was talking to Kayo and I first met her. After you hung up, I was talking to her, and I don't know why, but I just broke down and told her everything. And then she managed to calm me down, and she told me about her past and…" She looked back at the screen, "We were the same. We both had really difficult pasts where nobody wanted us, and we both had to go through everything for ourselves, learning how to do everything without anybody knowing, before you and your Dad and your siblings helped us. And if we didn't get the help, we both probably would have been isolated and would have never dared trusting anybody. And that day just really helped me and now I just want to… Make it up to her… I just wanted to do this without being interrupted. Just please let me help…" Her camera lights had turned pale blue, and I was confident that if she could she would be in floods of tears right now. "Please just let me do this…"

I have absolutely no clue how to answer what I just heard. In the few minutes, I had learnt so much, both about EOS and Kayo, and I felt ignorant. I could have guessed they were both like that. But I didn't do anything about it. And I can understand, when it comes to understanding the past, where I have all of my family, they had nothing. Kayo had family sure, but her Dad ditched her and we already saw her uncle was the biggest asshole known to humanity. She was just like the newly-created EOS when she was young, with the thought that nobody likes you and the person who was supposed to be there for you leaving you in a world where you're isolated. And whilst they were safe from that now, memories linger. I already know that from the memory of Dad. And what made me feel better was talking about it. Neither Kayo nor EOS could do that to somebody who understood until that day when they spoke. And I could suddenly understand how they suddenly had this massive bond. And I could understand why she wanted to do this.

"Okay, do you need any help with anything, EOS?"

She paused, looking through the massive document in front of her. "How do you spell her surname?"

"K-Y-R-A-N-O"

"Wait say that again but slower. I got it hella wrong. I got Cairano. Oops."

"K…y…r…a…n…o"

"Okay got it. That's it." A block of white text came up saying "LOADING" in block letters came up on the screen. EOS had turned back to her usual green colour, but there was still a tinge of blue.

"So what actually happened to her?"

"I'm guessing her cover got blown. Looks like she got a bullet in the side – somehow she avoided all major organs, her suit probably had something to do with that – but I'm guessing she fell because she's got bruising on her spine, broken arm – right forearm -, dislocated knee, bruised ribcage, one broken rib and two fractured ribs, bruised lung, cut in the side – obviously – which is prone to infection and a sorry-for- wait no, that's not a medical injury, the GDF put a message at the bottom for you." 

I walked up to the projector. How did the GDF get there before the emergency beacon was activated? The suits are designed that, if you get impacted by something, on a projector there's an option to turn it off thirty seconds. Kayo's not stupid enough to turn it off and just bleed to death whilst waiting for one of us or the GDF to help her. But it's soon answered:

"Sorry for shooting your agent "


	5. Chapter 5 - John

Chapter 5 – John

I continued to read the message under Kayo's stats, already livid after the first five words:

' _Sorry for shooting your agent, we had originally thought she was a threat posed by the person in question. We have taken Tanusha Kyrano into the Royal Oakley Hospital, located in Lower Earley, England, where she is currently under monitoring. Her ship is in our London base waiting to be picked up. We will require somebody from International Rescue to fill in some paperwork as the Global Defence Force do not have all the details that is required._

 _However, we are aware that she came on sight without our authorisation and without sending us any impression she may have been operating there. This could have given away our position to threats, and as a result if we find any of your agents operating when we have taken control, we will have to take consequences._

 _With regards,_

 _Lieutenant Marcus_

 _The Global Defence Force'_

I had to read it once, then twice, then a third time to get it through my head. The GDF did shoot Kayo. And they had banned our agents from, what would literally mean, operating. Kayo and Penelope couldn't operate. Speaking of which…

I dialled Penelope on her comms in the manor, before I realise she was at that party to raise funds for the earthquakes formed by the Pacific plate being a son of a gun. I realise that, now I had to stop swearing in the satellite now EOS was around (because, hey, I so much as say one word and she'll be repeating it to my brothers and then, well, let's not go there), and it had gotten to the stage where I didn't even think the words now. Just the substitutes. Just as I'm about to hang up the call, Penny answers.

"Hello John, what's up?"

"Hiya. How long have you been back?" I could already guess that it wasn't long as she was still in her normal gold dress with a black cardigan over the top. Is that the correct terminology? Black jacket maybe?

"Just got back in, is everything alright?"

"I'm afraid not. Have you heard of the Royal Oakley hospital? It should be in Southern London."

"Yes, we went past it this way. Why?" Her tone was already slowing down. She was already catching on. Damn.

"Well, something kinda – EOS!" I turned around to see EOS typing up a reply to the GDF's message – and it wasn't a polite one either. At least two rude words every sentence. "What?" She replied innocently. Just the reason you had to keep an eye on people and AIs alike – they're relatively good until you turn your back then they turn into one of Satan's minions and reek Hell on the place. "Just," I replied, turning off the main projector," Calm. The heck. _Downnnn_. We're sorting it out."

"John, sorting what out?" Penny asked, and then I got that horrible feeling I got when EOS had first told me what happened – a sudden pit in my stomach that just felt like it had decided to suck away all the potential joy that could be coming in. "Ummm, something sort of happened… To Kayo…." As soon as I say the name, Penny turned as white as a ghost – are ghosts even white? Has anybody ever seen a ghost and confirmed that they are all white? – and then I realise I have to explain the rest to her. "It sounds like her cover got blown when she was watching the GDF. And long story short, they managed to shoot her. They need somebody to go sign paperwork. I've already got a list of the medical injuries. The bullet somehow avoided all major organs, bruised spine, broken left arm, dislocated knee, bruised ribcage, one fractured rib- wait, EOS, didn't she have two fractured ribs and one broken rib?"

"Yeah, that's what it said, why?"

"They changed it. It now says one fractured rib, cut in the side, bruised hip and fractured upper arm on the left. Well, that changed."

"Oh, God." Penny said, and I could just hear the yapping of Sherbet in another room. "We'll head over there right now. Anything else?"

"Oh yeah. The GDF have currently suspended you on any missions without their permission."

"Okay. Why exactly?"

"Dunno. I'll see if I can find out more."

"Okay, I'll call you once it's done, okay?" 

"Okay." And with that, silence filled the room, and for once in this whole situation I wasn't in power. I was just left to wait. To sit here whilst I knew that my sister was dying. Having to keep it a secret from three of my brothers, minimum. Maybe four. And knowing that both Kayo and Penny were at risk for doing their jobs.

"John?" I heard a whisper behind me.

"Yeah?"

"Will she be okay?" EOS sounded really unsure, and worried. She never was like this, not for long anyway. And how could I answer that? I wasn't either sure. But I couldn't say that. I forced the corners on my lips up.

"Of course she will be."


	6. Chapter 6 - Lady Penelope

Chapter 6 – Lady Penelope

"Bring the car around, Parker," I called down the hall as I picked up my large bag – which was meant to be a handbag but was more of a satchel – and transferred my comms device from the gold clutch I brought with me from the party, along with a bottle of coke and a pack of crisps. The chances we'll be there for a while are very high, and the chances me or Parker will get hungry are about as high as those chances. In the moment it takes me to pull my coat on for Sherbet to have jumped in the satchel/handbag/monstrosity-of-a-bag, and has already laid down on the bottle.

"Come on Bertie, out boy," I try and get him out, but soon he starts whimpering, and I know I'm a sucker for that already. "Fine," I say, "but you _have_ to behave, okay?" I swing the bag onto my shoulder and jog out the door, and into the car where Parker's already waiting.

"Where to, m'lady?" He already sounds weary, but I'm hoping he'll understand.

"Royal Oakley hospital please," I say, settling the bag down, and I'm confident he's going to ask why.

"Wh - Gah! Get out of it, you mutt!" I only just noticed, but Sherbet has managed to perch himself on top of Parker's chair and is attempting to either become part of Parker's hair or to try and pull off all the hair on his head. I immediately scoop him up and lay him on my lap, and within seconds he's curled up and asleep, nuzzled into the velvet pocket of my coat.

"Before I was so rudely interrupted," Parker began again, "Why do we need to go there, if you don't mind me asking?"

Called it.

"Something's happened to Kayo. Sounds like her cover was blown."

"Oh. Well, then, I say we get there quickly if you agree, m'lady." I just nod, and as the plane coaxes itself into flying, I find myself relaxing for the first time for at least 3 days.

Suddenly, I hear Sherbet snarling and barking and I realise I've been asleep for at least ten minutes. I jolt up, feeling bad for falling asleep when Parker had to drive. Looking up, I see Parker holding Sherbet on an outstretched arm, the other arm resting against the door.

"Did I wake you, ma'am?"

"No, no," I say. And I'm not lying. Sherbet did. I climb out, and get ready to face the fact that, eventually, I'm going to have to deal with the thing all of us feared.

The fact that one of the people in International Rescue could have died. And still _may_ die.

About what be ten thousand forms later we're finally done, and I'm pretty sure I can spell Kayo's full name in my sleep. And now that the forms have been signed, they just have to confirm all the forms and then we can see her. Jeez, how did that happen? She never got spotted! Besides, she even makes the Tracy brothers jump because she walks around so quietly. And it's not like she's stupid enough to go and start yelling something when there's murderers around. I mean, yeah, she gets annoyed very easily if somebody's a jerk, yes, but she keeps her confidence levels down. And if she does get that annoyed, she waits until the guy is alone with no links to anybody. THEN she knocks him out and then does something to make sure she never has to deal with it again. The last one, I believe, was locking him in a cupboard and then flooding the area around the door.

I really don't understand how she can get away with that and I can't. Well, I say get away with it. Almost every time Scott 'has a conversation' with her. It's effectively them two shouting at each other for an unnamed period of time. Kayo normally wins, which may have something to do with Scott being afraid that she'd end up punching him.

Finally a nurse comes over, and when I go to inform Parker, he's asleep, and Sherbet's still asleep in my satchel thing, curled up against the bottle.

"Miss Penelope?" the nurse said, and I just nodded. "All the forms have been confirmed, we just need a few forms now from her boss in work," she said. Fun fact - doing this under GDF terms – we didn't have to reveal our team name. We just put down that it's a separate branch on the GDF that defends part of their perimeter. "Here's a list of the injuries. She's currently asleep because the medicine that was keeping her out should have run out by now, but just let her rest. If she wants, she can take off the oxygen machine when she wakes up, but only if she feels comfortable with it. But you'll be able to see her if you want. If she wakes up and wants to sit up, let her, but for no longer than 10 minutes. After that, she has to lay back down again. Because of the infection risk, we can only allow three people in the room at once. This will include nurses, so if something goes wrong, one of you will have to leave to allow a nurse in. Her room name is down the corridor right there," she said, pointing down one of the corridors – with a white ceiling, mint-painted walls and white laminate flooring – then turned back, "the code on her door is 2102, it's on the left and a few doors down from here."

"Okay, thank you." I picked up my bag from the chair, careful not to wake Sherbet, then just look awkwardly at Parker. I don't want to wake him up. He needs the rest. But then again, I can't just leave him here asleep. The nurse seemed to have notice my debating. "If he wakes up, we'll tell him where you are. We'll make sure nothing happens to him."

"Okay, thanks," I say, "Will it be okay to take my pug in there?"

The nurse pauses. "Is she allergic to dogs?" I shake my head. The only person in IR who is slightly allergic to dogs is John, and it's only slightly because he just gets a runny nose. The nurse pauses again. "How recently was he washed, exactly?"

"This morning," I say. And I'm sure Sherbet knew about that – and Parker's now mauled and scratched arms know about it too. He still stinks of shampoo, that potent minty smell you get in the new shampoo.

"Well, okay then," the nurse says. I quickly take a note on her name. Lauren. Then I spin on my heels and go down the rooms, just checking on the doors for the codes. As soon as I pass the first door, I immediately regret checking the codes on the doors, as they're glass (probably tinted on the other side). All I see is a small boy, 14 maybe, plugged in to all sorts of machines. I'm caught watching for a few seconds, mainly in horror, before I walk on. I walk past, desperately trying not to look at the pale faces. Code 2110 – empty. 2109 – A male with oxygen machine. 2108 – A female awake eating some sort of porridge. 2107 – A male, laying still with only a wire in his hand. 2107 – A female with loads of machines plugged into her. 2106 – Empty. 2105 – Male with loads of machines. 2104 – Loads of nurses around one table. 2103 – Empty. 2102 – Pale male with loads of machines. 2101 – Pale female with loads of machines.

And then I realise – that's Kayo.

I slowly open the door, putting the bag on the plastic chair by the door, taking in what just happened. I realise the actual force of what just happened has only now seeped in. She had an oxygen mask on, and an IV drip, and God knows what else. There's at least three other wires supporting her, and she looks way too pale to be her. Most of the wires are on her left side, so I'm guessing that's where she was shot. I just stand there, speechless.

And that's when I hear squeaking from the bag, and a few seconds later Sherbet is looking around the room, obviously confused. And then as soon as he saw Kayo, he leapt over to see her. He normally got excited by visitors, but surely he wasn't going to this extent. Before I can stop him, he's pouncing around on the bed, and the first place he lands is Kayo's side. I managed to grab him a few seconds after, but he's already hit the area. I could hear her take a sharp breath, and then she's opening her eyes. Before she's opened her eyes, she's already trying to sit up.

"Oi, wake up first," I say, sitting down on the plastic chair near the bed. I tipped some water into a glass of ice and put a black straw in, before handing it to her. "How do you feel?"

"Is like a twat an option?" she said, taking the glass and taking a sip before putting it down on the table again.

"What d'you mean, like a twat?"

"Remember when you, me and Gordon had a really bad headache and we all took those ibuprofen and we didn't realise that a) we were only meant to take one because they were double concentrate and b) they were, like, a _million_ days out of date and we all just felt really hung over and sick? Like that." She said, looking around the room. She then looked down at Sherbet, who was already trying to squirm out of my hands, as if he just wanted to go explore.

"How did you manage to get him in?" She asked.

"Bribing the nurses with photos of him and being able to fuss him. Works a treat… Hey, you really don't seem that concerned for somebody in hospital." 

"Well, yeah, I've been awake – well not awake, but, like, thinking – for ages. I just got bored after a while. Can't be bothered with that now."

"Do you know what happened?"

"Well, my side hurts and it says on the whiteboard over there," she pointed at a board in the corner, "that there was a bullet there so I'm guessing I got shot…"

"Well done smarty-pants."

"Oh geez, you sounded so much like Scott when you say that." She cringed, picking up Sherbet who had managed to fidget his way out of my lap and onto the hospital bed and started stroking him.

"Speaking of which, does Scott know?"

"I dunno, I've been asleep, haven't I?" 

"Thought you just said you were awake."

"Oh yeah, because I have this magic psycho power that allows me to see whether they happen to know what we've been up to. Jeez, I'm not some mind lord, Penny!"

"Okay, touché. He probably does. Oh yeah, he needs to sign some paperwork. I'm just going to get a call. Try and get some sleep, okay?"

"Okay." She laid back down, still fussing Sherbet. "Can I leave him in here with you whilst I make the call?"

"'Course you can," She said, laying on her right side (the non-shot side), still focusing on the little pug who had curled himself up on the pillow. I pick up the bag before I closed the door silently, grabbing my comms and dialling Scott. It takes quite a few rings to answer, before a very muddy Scott comes up on the comms. He even sounds annoyed when he started speaking, so I'm guessing he knows and, like me, he was just stressed out. "Lady P, what's up?"

"Hello Scott. How long are you going to be? You need to sign some forms for Kayo. We're at the Royal Oakley hospital."

"Wait, why are you there?"

"Didn't John tell you? Kayo got caught on a mission. Bullet in the side, remember?"

"What?!"


	7. Chapter 7 - Virgil

Chapter 7 – Virgil

The whole day had been dedicated to the earthquakes caused by the Pacific plate, starting with me and Alan first helping out with the mudslide and getting muddy, then helping out with medical help over in Japan, and THEN travelling to Ecuador where another earthquake hit – on the Richter scale – where we met up with Scott and got – guess what! – Muddy. Now, we were parked on a mountain nearby Ecuador, where nobody could see us. Alan was currently having a shower – God, I felt so sorry for the water tanks in Thunderbird 2 – and Scott had gone off to answer a call from Lady P. Scott was the only one caked with mud as I had a shower first, followed by Alan, and then Scott would go in afterwards. I won't lie – there was a killer view from here. The sun had set over the horizon, which may or may not have been sea, setting the sky ablaze with the colours of rubies and amber. The clouds, however, were different shades of purple, and the buildings – well, what was left of them – were varying from auburn to cerulean blue. It honestly looks like the view you can occasionally get from Tracy Island, except the building were the terrain around the villa.

"What?!" I can hear Scott yelling, and I walk over, deciding it's a good idea to stop any arguments that might be happening between him and Penny.

"What's up?" I say, already seeing it wasn't good news whatever it was.

"Kayo. That's what," Scott said, sounding annoyed, and then I immediately feel bad for her. Once again, as soon as she came in, she'd get bombarded by Scott. I mean, yeah, sometimes she could take things a _little_ too far, but it always prevented a rescue or trouble. "So," I probe further, "What's _actually_ happened?"

"Her cover got blown," Penelope said, "Bullet in the side. Scott just needs to sign some forms," she said, glaring at him, "Once he calms the bloody hell down, that is," Geez, I knew it must be around 1 in the morning at London but come on.

"We're going now, we'll see you in a bit." I said, hanging up Scott's comms and practically dragging him onto Thunderbird Two. Thankfully, Alan has just come out the shower, so now one problem's sorted out.

"Alan, get changed into your spare clothes – _not_ your uniform – then you can drive Thunderbird 1 down to Tracy Island, okay? We just need to go to London to sort something out."

"Cool!" Alan said, and I'm thanking God he didn't question why. "I'll call you when I'm back, okay?"

"Okay, "I say, dragging Scott over and into the co-pilot chair and then sitting down, doing the pre-launch procedures whilst Alan pulled on his shirt and shorts and went to leave the ship. As soon as he was clear and in Thunderbird One, I launch. Scott was still mumbling something under his breath, arms crossed and looking the opposite direction to me. "What is wrong with you today?" I ask.

"I'm annoyed that she went out without permission. Again."

"Well, there's nothing we can do about it. And you going in there and yelling her is not going to help her in any way. So go have a shower, change into your spare clothes, and get a grip." I say, already starting the shower.

"But-" 

"No, Scott, have a shower. The water's not going to last long, and you can't go out in public without immediately drawing attention to you and anybody else in your uniform. Shove your suit in the wash while you're at it and all," I say, as he slumps into the shower. Now this was going to be a long day if it wasn't long enough to begin with. After Scott's in the shower, I set the plane on autopilot and change into my spare clothes.

After least an hour of Scott's sulks and a very eager Alan calling in to say he's back and playing his new video game, we finally land in a forest nearby, where nobody was around, and settle down. It then takes a few minutes to jog into the hospital, where in the waiting room, we see Parker asleep on the chair.

"Parker," Scott called, waking him up. It's easy to see he's been asleep for at least the hour or so we've been travelling, because he looks startled and is looking around, almost bewildered. "Master Scott," he begins, but even if he had anything to say afterwards, Scott interrupts.

"Where is she?" Scott bellowed, and for a minute I'm sure he's going to yell at her and I'm tempted to just chuck him out or deck him.

"Oh. So he hasn't bucked his ideas up yet," Penny comes up behind us, shooting Scott the dirtiest look known to man. "She's awake, but I swear to God I'm not letting you see her until you get a grip." She shoved loads of paperwork into his chest, "Sign in the yellow boxes. Then hand it to reception." She snarled, then turned to me, "Do you want to see her?"

"Yeah," I said, nodding and receiving a dirty look from Scott. What _was_ it with dirty looks today? And why the Hell did Scott lose it? Penny just nodded down a mint-painted corridor, and then I followed her down to one of the rooms on the left. Once she opens the door, I can see her, sitting cross-legged on the bed, with Sherbet sleeping upside-down on the pillow, making a snoring-like noise (is that what it's called?) with Kayo plugged into a load of devices and playing some sort of game on a holo-projector. As soon as we walk in, she just points at the snoring pug and laughs. "He's been doing that for at _least_ an hour. I didn't know they can snore!"

"He often does that. It's annoying to hear at three in the morning."

"Awh he so _cuuuuuuuuute_." Kayo cooed

"Don't tell me we're going to have to get you a pug once you're discharged," I groaned.

"Also," Penny said, "The nurse said that when I first came in you were meant to be wearing an oxygen mask…"

"Oh yeah. I took that off as soon as they left."

"How did you manage that when you were supposedly asleep?"

"Remember I said I was sort of awake, as in, like, I couldn't move much but I could hear them talking. They said I could take it off, so, I did as soon as they left. I mean, it hurt my arm to move it but, hey…"

"Oh, _Kayo_ ," I hiss under my breath. "Also, Scott's here."

"Uuuuuuuggggggggg." She moaned, throwing herself down on the bed, her head landing next to Snory-Sherbet. The pug only just twitched his paw in response to the sudden weight change on the pillow. "Is he mad?"

"No, he's not, he's just…" I begin.

"He's being an annoying git." Penny said, picking up the pug and putting him on her folded-up coat in her bag.

"Well, I should get going. Just call me if you need me, okay?" Penny said to me, then turned to Kayo. "Now, get some sleep. You've been up for A LOT longer then you should have.

"Yes mummy sorry mummy," Kayo joked, obviously tired of Penny being overprotective. "Ha-ha" Penny said, before saying goodbye and closing the door.

"Right, come on now, go to sleep. It's two in the blinking morning." I said, walking up to her and pulling the blanket up around her shoulders. She just nodded and, and within seconds she's out.


	8. Chapter 8 - Alan

Chapter 8 – Alan

First nailing CPR on three people and assisting another two, then saving (well, _helping_ to save) an entire family and THEN being able to race back in Thunderbird 1 straight to completing four levels of the new Global-Conflict-based videogame, and then falling asleep during the 5th level. Not a bad day. I mean, granted, it's stupid o' clock in the morning and I'd be shattered if we didn't go to bed at about 11 in the morning today, and now I'm stuck in the time of night where there's nothing to do but, hey. Doesn't take anything away from the good day. But still, despite there being at least another five levels on the videogame, there's just that annoying nighty atmosphere that makes you not want to do anything, and makes the time drag as well. How the hell can Kayo and Gordon get up at this time _willingly_? And go to bed so _late_? And how are they not exhausted all the time? And how comes they can get away with it and I can't? Ugh. I hate older siblings. Sometimes it's just rude when they're there, like, 'you can't do that you're too young' or 'I can only do it cause I'm _x_ years old, wait 'til you're _x_ years old'. Not my fault my parents decided to push them lot out first, is it? And are they now entitled to do things right in front of my face and then say that? How comes no member of authority ever intervenes? Do they encourage, what is effectively, bragging? Does it amuse them?

I only realise I've been thinking about that for at least ten minutes once I look at the florescent reading on my clock that was once on my bedside table, but was now dangling upside down off the table only my it's cord. 8.59 pm. It may as well have been the middle of the night. And this is the time I would normally go to bed (well, when Grandma was in the villa. When she was out for tea or some girly stuff, well…). But thanks to the nap, I couldn't to save my life. AND I DON'T SAY THAT OFTEN. But I may as well just walk around and hope I get tired enough. Well, if I can walk up to Thunderbird Shadow's bay it beats walking around Thunderbird 3's bay three times. Why? Because we had to put it where there USED to be the extra cargo just so Kayo wouldn't suspect anything. Well, she did, and we had to keep coming up with excuses to get her away. I think one of the best ones was that Gordon was dressed up in a tutu (and I'll admit, I fell for it) and who wouldn't want to see that? So Virgil had to make THE quickest comms and somehow got Gordon to dance around in a tutu and sing. Kayo, of course, recorded it on her comms, and managed to send it to everybody in International Rescue AND Colonel Casey AND Scott's girlfriend – God he'd murder me if I said that in front of him - Marion. Ha-ha. Anyway, I _need_ to stop this random thinking.

I manage to get into the hangars without any stupid thoughts, and then it's just my chosen route. Umm… I said up to Thunderbird Shadow and/or around Thunderbird 3, but I get the feeling I can't be bothered with either. Also, why didn't we install any lights on the corridors? And – OH MY GOD I NEED TO STOP. And then there's a crash behind me, which makes me jump, but when I turn around, it's just MAX. I sigh in relief.

"Yes, hello MAX."

"Brrp." He did that chirpy thing he always does. How does Brains understand these chirps? Or does he just pretend to agree?

"What do you want MAX?"

And then he does another chirp, then just turns around and drives towards the stairs, before looking at me. Guessing he wanted me to follow him down the stairs. Ah well, it may kill time. Following him down the stairs, I can see what he wanted me to see.

I wasn't the only one awake. Brains was down by Thunderbird 1 as usual, but he wasn't working on his projector as usual. Instead, he had a robot that was structured very similarly to a young person, and seemed to be making some sort of wig out of gingery-coloured fibre optics.

"Why the Hell are you making a robot kid?" I say, and he seems surprised I was awake.

"Aren't you meant to be in bed?" 

"No. Because I sleep on the floor. I don't _use_ beds."

"Yeah, w-why do you do that?"

"Oi, answer my question first!"

"Fine. John wanted to take EOS down to Tracy Island to actually meet everybody properly and do what he did as a kid, and he said just getting a simple probe was fine, but, hey, then she couldn't do all the stuff we did, could she?"

"Cool. So how do you intend to make this?" 

"Well, I'm going to try and make all human actions available, but adjust it to an AI's control and – hey, y-you didn't answer my question!"

"Fine. Because beds are overrated and why should we remake them every time we sleep in it? Now, continue,"

"Well, now I'm just trying to hook up all the machines." 

"Need a hand?" 

"Well... I suppose… Yeah, that may be useful. They're all colour-coded, we just need to plug each coloured wire into the wires that are the same colour and-" He yawned, covering his mouth with his hand. "Oh, excuse m-me."

"Brains, have a nap. I'll wake you up once I've plugged in all the wires." 

"No, no it's-"

"Brains, sleep. It's just plugging in wires. How hard can it be?" 

"Well, okay. Wake me up if you need anything."

"Yes, Brains." I begin to start on the wires. All of the wires are collected on the back of the little girl robot – and now I can say that without gendering - , but just sitting loose. Some of them need this sort of tape, and some plug in easily. It's quite simple. Red to red, blue to blue, green to green, yellow to yellow, purple to purple, cherry to cherry, brown to brown, mint to mint, peach to – wait, there's two sets of peach-coloured wires! How am I meant to do that?! I plug in the rest of the wires, then just stare at the wires. I'm pretty sure one set has a slightly red trace to it, so I just plug them in as how I think it would be, then look at the time. 1.24 am. How did the time go that quick on something little kids could do?

"Brains, done. What now?"

"How long have I been asleep?"

"Dunno. But I did it!"

"Well done Alan – except you did those two wrong." He points at the peach wires. Uuuuuuuggggggggg you're joking me. I re-plug them, then go back. "Do you need anything else?"

"Nope. All done. Everything's in the wires. I just need to use Nano-Matrix for the skin, and then just put the wig on and get some clothes done and then we should be fine." He said, putting some sort of material on the machine and some under it then setting up something on his projector, which was filled with codes, and there was a drilling sound that filled the hangar. Then he closed everything down, and gestured for both of us to go up to the actual villa, where both Grandma and Gordon were sleeping. Gordon was asleep when I came in, and Grandma had gone to sleep some time during me playing my game.

"Okay." I say, then pause. "Hey, Brains, what are Scott and Virgil up to?" and he just pauses, as if debating to tell me. "Dunno," he said. But he can't lie to save his life.

"Brainsssss,"I hiss, and then it's his debating scrunched-up face.

"Fine, but when Scott tells you, you HAVE to act surprised." 

"Oh, he hasn't gotten a girl pregnant has he?" And then I get a dirty look from him. "Not appropriate?"

"No. But promise you won't freak out?"

"Yes, I'll do a flipping oath if it gets you to spill the beans." 

"Fine. Kayo had an accident on a mission. I haven't got any details, I'm as much in the dark as you, b-but she's in a London hospital at the moment." 

"Oh." Aaaaaaand how do you answer that?

"Now, bed. Go to sleep. You won't help by being awake."

"Okay." I say, before jogging ahead of Brains, through the lounge and into my room. I flop down on the rug on my floor and I'm asleep within seconds.

 **Hello! Due to some art studies I am recently doing, the chapters are going to be a bit awkwardly placed. This means I am going to be writing when I can, and sometimes I may upload three or four chapters at a time, or do loads of little chapters. The plot won't change, but I thought I should just let you know. Also, if there is anything you want to see, please let me know. Also, I can promise, without trying to spoil anything, that within the next few chapters, that there is going to be another change to the plot. Thank you so much for reading!**


	9. Chapter 9 - Kayo

Chapter 9 – Kayo

 _Warning: some swearing_

I was half-expecting that, when I actually 'woke up', I'd have that massive period where I couldn't move unless I really wanted to hurt myself and I would be left to debate life. Like why squirrels even exist, or how nurses can see people die and still be cheery (let's not get started on those, just nope). Instead, I fully wake up, like a normal person. Well, I say normal. My side still kills – duh – and I've got one of the worst bloody migraines. And having machines bleeping down your ear is in no way, shape or form useful with a migraine, let me tell you. When I open my eyes, I can see Virgil drawing on his sketchpad, drawing a bunch of ovals shaped like something that looked like it would be a puppy or kitten. But, knowing my luck when it came to guessing what a drawing is or what it means, it could be an emu. I just sit there watching for a while, confused how he's going to make something that looks like a demented cactus into a drawing. Eventually, it begins to look more like a horse. Oops. As he continues to draw, I can come to a strong conclusion it is _not_ a dog or a cat. I can already hear him muttering under his breath, mumbling about their long and thin-yet-thick necks.

"Not their fault, I doubt they just went up to their mothers when they were growing and was there like 'Hello mother, it is me, your unborn foal. Yeah, can I have a really long and awkward neck please? I want people to struggle when they draw me.'." I just said bluntly, and it makes Virgil jump.

"Oh, hey, um… You're not meant to be up yet."

"Yeah, well I do what I like. And what's that supposed to mean?" I say, sitting myself up.

"Well – oi, sit back down, you can't sit up 'cause you were a tit last time you sat up and you made your side bleed when you were asleep - you had enough anaesthetic in you to be out for at least another five, six hours minimum. You're not meant to be up yet. That's probably not natural, I'm just going get a nurse in." He said, going to hit that white buzzer above every bed in every hospital I've seen. But screw that am I having any of that. I just grab the buzzer and throw in to a corner of the room, aware I broke a wire off it due to the crackling above my head where it was bound to the wall (bonus!), then just curl up in a ball in the bed, facing the opposite way to him, head half buried in the pillow and my legs up to my chest.

"Hey, come on," Virgil begins, but bull am I having any of it. The last time that happened, I ended up an orphan and then the bitch-faced nurses... I didn't even want to think about it. Let's just say I first met my uncle, and then I just really hated, well, everyone I knew, everybody I met. Granted, it was only for God knows how long before Jeff found me, but still. I can feel Virgil sit down on the bed behind me, and I don't want him to feel like it's his fault, but I just don't want everything to repeat itself. "I know you don't like nurses, but I just want to make sure you're okay." Well, I feel as shit as ever, thanks, no need for bitch-faces to come in. I just turn over to curl up on the other side because, as much as I'm used to curling up on that side and I don't want him to think I'll let him call in the nurses, a bullet as hard as Satan's soul had kinda burst through my body and had an intention of causing me pain. It's not the best thing ever. "Why don't you like nurses or doctors?" 

"'Cause they're bitch-faces,"

"They just want to help you, Kayo."

"Then they're bitch-faces who," I made a voice that was meant to sound like him but probably didn't, "Want to help me."

"Yeah, whatever." He just said, skidding down next to me, tucking an arm around my shoulders and resting the other hand on my hip, careful not to touch my wound. I swear, he's the only Tracy that can do things like that smoothly without judgement. Scott, maybe but nah; John, as if; Gordon, just plain creepy; Alan, wouldn't ever bother with anything like this. I just rest my head on his shoulder, already feeling tired, and I let my legs back down. We just stay there for a while, and I slowly become aware that, for the first time in years, I've actually let somebody hug me. After I was, what, three maybe I just swore to myself never to let people have any kind of this type of contact – well, limited contact – after the whole nurse incident. I made an exception to Jeff, but after a while he learnt what I was comfortable with and, after that, his sons. Why was I like this all of a sudden? I only had a few drugs running through my system, which was probably just a painkiller and the rest of the anaesthetic. Why did that suddenly make me okay with this? How am I feeling okay knowing what happened last time? In the nicest way possible, there's only an extent to how far I trust everybody. The Tracy's are at the top of the list, of course, along with Brains, Penny, Parker, EOS and Sherbet. Well, maybe not Sherbet, I couldn't trust the pug some days but still. But no matter how far I trust people, some things just don't happen with me. They just don't. It's just habit, and whilst I realise I know it isn't my fault (well, I still think it is, but after God knows how long of both Jeff and Grandma telling me it isn't I just agreed, a lot easier) I feel bad for not letting it go for them, and once they had even accepted me as their sister. And for not opening up about everything. It was probably because of the whole the-Hood-is-my-uncle secret. But, I realise, it's out there. They know. I can talk about it. So why the Hell am I keeping it back? Maybe I just want to talk about it to someone. Maybe I want somebody to understand, and not to the level Jeff and Grandma do, which is the I-read-it-on-a-paper-report-when-they-found-me level. I just wanted to speak about it, I just wanted somebody to know the details. I just actually wanted somebody to know. And I never wanted this before. Ever. And I knew the boys wanted to know about it, I over-heard Scott saying he did and the others all agreed with him. I always just wanted to keep to myself, but…

"Virgil?" My voice only came out as a croaky whisper, as I shifted myself up so I was laying on my back again, looking over at him.

"Yeah, what's up?" Then the doubt comes again, but I really don't seem to care much about it.

"Can I tell you something?"

"'Course you can. What about?"

"Before… Before I came to Tracy Island-"

"Hey, come on," He said, and I just bit my lip. Shouldn't I have told him? "Of course you can tell me about that, Kayo, but not when God knows what drugs are running through your system. Just wait until they're out, I don't want you to make the mistake of telling me when you're going to regret it." Okay, that made sense. But it's not the drugs… Is it? Is it just the drugs making me think this? Am I even thinking properly?

"Hey, come on, stop being annoyed or thinking or whatever," he said, and I immediately wanted to correct him. You're always thinking. He just rubbed the area between my eyebrows with his thumb. "It's really obvious when you're annoyed. You get a little frowny thing here."

"I'm not annoyed with you. I'm annoyed at drugs."

"Now _that_ sounds like you."

I just elbow him in the side. What's that meant to mean? Did he just insist I'm always thinking about drugs? I'm about to ask him to what that means, when I hear the door click. I just look at the door, and I don't know what my reaction is meant to be.

Colonel Casey.

I just shift awkwardly as Virgil sits up, arm still around my shoulders.

"Oh sorry," Colonel Casey said, hovering awkwardly in the door.

"No, no, we were just watching a film," Virgil blatantly lied, looking down at me.

"Oh." She just looked at me, with what seemed a slightly sinister look. "How are you feeling?" Oh, just grand. Was that rhetorical? Obviously not well, that's the reason of being in hospital! I just shrug, giving her a second look over. Her eyes almost seemed, I dunno, paler. Not in the lighter version, I mean almost clouded over. And she's taller than I remember. But maybe I'm just being paranoid. I mean, I'm laying down, so she would seem taller, and she had bags under her eyes. But something felt off….

She came over to the side of the bed and moved Virgil's sketchbook onto the bedside table (I say bedside, there was, like, a 45cm gap away from it and the bed, that is NOT bedside under my definition) before sitting down. She did what she normally did when she was in a chair, leaning forwards, hands joined with fingers linked and thumbs crossed over and forearms resting on her knees. "Now," she said. I hate it when conversations start like that, it always means it's something serious or something is wrong. "I just wanted to clear something up, about how the events of Tuesday occurred." 

"Yes, that would be helpful, wouldn't it?" Virgil prompted, but I just nodded. What does 'clear up' mean?

"At around 8.30 pm, we had gone in to investigate a warehouse that was believed to have been used to hide the large theft of crude oil, uranium and mercury. We had specifically said to your brother that nobody was to enter because it was too dangerous to risk any other outside branches in." _Nope, she's lying_. Part of my mind nagged at me. John just said that they seemed dodgy about a risk! He wouldn't lie would he? No… Surely not… But…

"The other lieutenants I and had gathered there ready to plan an investigation to check for any atoms from these that were either left or had oxidised, or any other unnatural traces in the air as a confirmation it was used. However, at around 10 pm there were some rumours about other engines firing, not GDF engines, which seemed to have linked to Thunderbird Shadow landing on top of the warehouse," _Why are you believing this?_ The voice in my head had come back. _You were on the sun dish, and you couldn't have got the bike out on the ceiling easily_. No I couldn't have been… Could I? If I did, wouldn't she tell us? She was so honest, Jeff had trusted his pride and beauty, International Rescue and the Thunderbirds, as part of the GDF. And if that wasn't enough, wouldn't she be telling the truth to try and get me in trouble with Scott? Okay, that sounds evil. I meant, wouldn't she tell him to prevent this?

"And then at 10.45 pm roughly, once all the lieutenants were in, we began investigations. However, once we had proof of the oil being stored there, it was compromised by a piece of metal that must have fallen when Kayo was moving around. Originally, we thought it was a minion used by the person responsible. It was the reason we were shooting, and we do apologise for this." _This asshole's lying, she had da-ta-from-Thun-der-bird-Four!_ Oh shut up will ya? She wouldn't lie. I could even see it happening, me walking and something falling over the side. But then I remember what Virgil said, about drugs altering behaviours and what you want to do… Did it also work for memories? Part of me remembers throwing a shard at a lieutenant – did I actually throw it _at_ a lieutenant or something it was holding?- which tallies up to the gauges on my hands, but… My mind just hurts, trying to work out what's real.

"Kayo?" Virgil said, tightening his grip on my shoulders. "We've said you name three times now, Kayo."

"She's just gotten a load new information she probably forgot, Virgil, let's just leave it here for now and I'll continue at a later date. The anaesthetic's probably kicking back in again, too. Also, good horse," she said nodding at the sketchpad.

"Oh, thanks," Virgil said, trying to sound not bothered but he was obviously chuffed by it.

"Well, I'll see both of you soon. Get better soon, Kayo, okay?" Colonel Casey said, opening the door. I just nodded, but honestly, it's not like I have a choice, I can't just tell my body 'get better, preferably in a few hours, thanks darling'. She left, leaving. I just sighed.

"You okay?" Virgil asked.

"Yeah just… trying to work things out," I said.

"Just take all the time you need." Virgil said, sliding out. "I've said I'll take your ship back to Tracy Island, so I'll just do that and come straight back, okay?" I just nodded. I didn't want my ship near them. It was like my baby and- Oh God I'm turning into my brothers! "Okay, get some rest, Kayo," he said, holding my hand as I closed my eyes and gradually relaxed myself into sleep. But this information was still irritating my brain. I didn't do what Colonel Casey said, did I?

No, I did do it – didn't I?


	10. Chapter 10 - Alan

Chapter 10 – Alan

I was quite enjoying my lay-in after the last few days, but unfortunately it was interrupted by the clattering of pans and pots and God knows what else coming from the kitchen downstairs. I only realise, once I open my eyes, I left the curtains open and bright light's spilling all over my room. I squint against the light as I get up, yawning, then opening the wooden-and-net doors. As I walk out I can almost sense something's wrong. That something isn't usual. Then I realise, I've walked into my closet. Again.

After about thirty minutes, I've had a shower, brushed my hair, brushed my teeth, got changed and ready to go down and get breakfast – preferably not the Satan-blessed pieces of charcoal which Grandma calls cookies, or any of its other charcoal. But instead of walking down to the kitchen like usual, I make a detour down to the hangar. I can briefly remember doing something with Brains, but I couldn't put my finger on it. As soon as I saw it, I could guarantee I'd remember everything. It almost seemed like some sort of dream, half clouded-over by reality. As soon as I go through the door, I can already hear MAX and his chirpy things, along with a lot of crashing and banging. Oh, so maybe it wasn't Grandma. Once I get in view of the lab and Thunderbird 1, I have to have a second look.

The robotic structure that I was plugging wires into now had a coat of pale skin over it, and a wig full of shoulder-length, straight and ginger hair. She was wearing a little white dress that was – and here's to prove my rubbish knowledge on dresses – a dress with straps that had some sort of belt thing around where the rib cage would be, maybe an inch and a bit up from the bottom of the rib cage, and after that it just flowed down to a bit above the kneecap. She's also wearing white sandals, and a silver necklace that comes down to her chest, a small loop with the number _5_ in the centre of it. As I walked down further, I could see more details. The eyes were coloured green, and had the little LEDs that EOS normally had on her camera lens in Thunderbird 5, and her face looked a lot like John's, so much that Brains must have had a picture of John just to get these details. But, in a way, it didn't. It looked too innocent to be John. She had thinner eyebrows, with slightly fuller cheeks and wider eyes, longer lashes and a smaller and more delicate mouth. Let's put it as this – she was adorable. If I was her age, or even if she was mine, I may have had a crush on her. But I already had a crush on somebody…

"Ah, Alan," Brains said when he saw me. "Finally decided to wake up did you?"

"What's the time?" I ask, looking at the little girl robot.

"2.58 pm" He said, checking the hologram on his lab desk.

"Mmmmmmmmhm," I mumbled, walking over to the robot and rubbing a tuft of hair with my fingers. I could tell what they were immediately – fibre optics. But how were they so smooth?

"It's pointless telling him anything, Brains, for all we know he's still asleep." Gordon said, coming out from behind one of the hangar walls, carrying two buckets – one with suds and a sponge, and a bucket with seemingly nothing. It was probably filled with flannels. "And from that sound, he's probably a zombie and all," 

"Said the guy who has a shirt made from clearance material" I said, and at that time I had a moist sponge that was unnaturally brown-green thrown at my face. I just held it at arm's length using just my finger and my thumb. "And what the Hell is on this?" I asked.

"The mould, algae and other junk from Thunderbird 4's micelles." Gordon smirked as I let out a moan of disgust.

"Oh, come on Gordo," Virgil said, coming down from Thunderbird 2, with Scott following shortly behind. Where everybody else had been rather cheerful this morning, Scott just seemed depressed. He just leant against one of the cargo chests, staring at the ground. I wasn't even going to question. "He's just woken up. Let's not get him annoyed too early on, hey?"

"Fine," Gordon said, "But later, I swear I'm having ya."

"Oooooh, scaryyyyyy." I said. I just flung the sponge back at Gordon, then turned to Brains. "Is she done?"

"I t-think so," He said, looking at his work, the robot who came up to my shoulder. Tobe fair, it was very, very impressive. "John said he'd come down today, he called me as soon as I was ready to go to bed, so I haven't slept. I'm afraid as soon as he comes down, I'll shortly have to go to bed. But if there's any malfunctions in EOS's probe," he gestured to the robot, "MAX will sort it out."

"Why is he coming down early?" 

"The Kayo situation. I mean, I t-told him it was only technically a graze in her side, but just through quite a few layers of tissue and-"

"Brains," Virgil said, "We have two very different definition of _getting a bullet in the side_." Virgil said, stressing the last bit, one hand on his hip, the other picking up a cloth to wipe his dirt-coated hands on.

"WOAH, WHAT?!" Gordon yelled.

"I-I thought I forgot to tell somebody" Brains said, adjusting his glasses. "Yeah, Kayo's in hospital. We decided we're going to keep John in the hospital with K-Kayo, because I can take over monitor duty, and if something happens with Thunderbird 5 we can deploy Thunderbird 3 or send EOS up to sort it out. The GDF have already given us a premium flat for guests in the hospital-"

"Flat? In hospital?" I ask. Is that a thing?

"Yes, founded after the Global Conflict. They're given to people who may be needed to answer questions when the person in hospital is either unable to or has chances of being too stubborn too – you have a guess which one she falls under. Anyway, John will mainly stay with her until she's recovered enough to be acceptable for Tracy Island's medical facilities. It should only be a few weeks."

"Why couldn't one of us do it?" Scott moaned.

"Because you need to be alert for missions, especially with all this t-tectonic plate movement. And it'll be hard to replace one of you once you're gone, whereas John can easily be done by me or EOS."

"Speak of the devil," Gordon said, nodding to Thunderbird 5's docking bay. John was coming down in his capsule, the roaring echoing around the hangar.

"Right," Brains said, stifling a yawn, "Let's go see if this works." We all walked up the stairs, with Brains originally carrying the EOS robot, but after he was struggling, Virgil had to take her. After John had come out and said hello, and had a quiet snap at Brains for not just using a simple probe despite him being absolutely chuffed, Brains plugged in EOS and John told her to do the transmissions to the robot. Then there was a moment of silence. The silence lasted too long. Had it failed? But then the robot started blinking, and the clear LEDs lit up green. Then she looked at John.

"Ah," she said in her usual playful voice, "Now THESE processors work, John."

"Oh, ha-ha," John said. "How does it feel to be…" He paused for a bit of a second, "Human?"

"Ummm, okay," she said, and tried to take a step forward, but ended up stumbling. John immediately went to catch her, and so did Virgil.

"Easy," John coaxed, helping her get back up, and once she managed to walk normally – well, walking without constantly falling over – we all went down the stairs to head over to Thunderbird 2. EOS, like expected, started off wobbly. Then again, we couldn't blame her. John helped her down half of the stairs, and after that she was fine. By the last few steps she even started jogging down the stairs. How the hell was she learning so quickly?

"Jeez, these ships are massive," she said, looking around the hangar. "How long does it take to clean them?" 

"Too long." Gordon said, moaning as he said it.

"And you have the smallest ship!" Scott said, rolling his eyes.

"Well, do you have to deal with algae?" Gordon argued.

"No, just compressed nitrogen and carbon dioxide and sulphur and whatever other junk is in the atmosphere."

"Oh. Touché."

"I love the way you _suddenly_ shut your face after one of us so much as begins to own your ass," Virgil said, smirking. "Anyway, who am I taking to the hospital except John and Grandma? I'll have three extra seats, if we include the two in whichever Pod I take."

"Can I go?" EOS asked with a small voice, hovering around John's legs.

"Sure you can. Anybody else?" John looked at us.

"Me and Gordon?" I said, turning to Scott, Gordon and Brains, "If that's okay with you three."

"Yes," Brains said, "Besides, I need to upgrade the vertical landing system in Thunderbird 1, and I'll need Scott's help with that, and I'm sure I can find something for Gordon to do."

"Okay then," Virgil said, "I'll meet you guys in the ship in fifteen minutes,"

"Okay," We all said, and where Gordon and I went to go to the kitchen and tell Grandma, John, Virgil and EOS headed down to Thunderbird 2, EOS holding John's hand and Virgil's hand on her other shoulder. By the time we got into the kitchen, Grandma looked like she was about to throw the oven in the bin.

"Oh, decided to get up?" Grandma said, nodding at me.

"Yup. Me, John, EOS and this thing," I said, pointing at Gordon, "Are going over to London to see Kayo. We got fifteen minutes before we have to go, maybe closer to ten now."

"Okay. I've cooked us some fresh cookies for the trip," she said, holding out a tray of blackened lumps of overcooked –overcooked? What a kind word! - 'dough'.

"Mmm, I can't wait!" I tried to sound as enthusiastic as possible as Gordon sniggered under his breath at my attempt.

"Right, I'm about ready, let's go." She said, walking past us and up the stairs

"Okay," I said, following Grandma down to Thunderbird 2.

About ten minutes later, we were all in Thunderbird 2. I was in the POD along with Gordon, meaning we were – relatively – safe of the coal-cookies. Usually, whenever Grandma was in the ship, she would be in the co-pilot seat, but let EOS sit there. EOS seemed intent on seeing everything and absolutely anything. To be fair, it must have beaten the limited expanse of Thunderbird 5. John was sitting behind her, and Grandma behind Virgil. The few hours progressed steadily, with me teaching Gordon how to play my new videogame and, once the first four levels were repeated, we finished the whole game. Admittedly, we both cried, and John came in to see us crying. Why the Hell did they have to kill off nearly everybody? I aint happy.

Finally, we came into a landing at the GDF base. They had already guaranteed us a landing pad, they always had since the Thunderbirds were created, but the deal was we had to turn off all links to International Rescue and the GDF, so if something happened, it would be our fault. Didn't get how that worked, but still. After we were all out, and out of our suits, we began to walk down to the hospital cutting through the park. It was a very humid day, and all we could see was people and dogs. Why so many dogs? At least two thirds of them were women, and they kept looking at us, maybe because of EOS, or just the family together. Either way, Gordon enjoyed it

After about a ten-minute walk, we were accepted into the hospital. Once again, we were greeted by a nurse, who told us how many people were allowed in a room – this time it was five – and that Penny was already in there. Also, she was ready to show John to his room, so John and Grandma would unpack his stuff whilst Virgil, EOS, Gordon and I went to see her, then before we left Grandma could go in. John had plenty of time after that, anyway.

We all went down the mint corridor, and into Kayo's room. She and Penelope were both sitting next to each other on the bed, leaning against pillows, playing a game using remotes. Sherbet was snoring upside-down on the top of the pillow. We opened the door, and _clearly_ Virgil was not happy.

"Kayo, you're not meant to be sitting-"

"Shh."She hissed, not even bothering to look up.

"Kayo-"

"One minute…" She said, with both Penny and her started leaning forward, focusing on the game. Seconds later, they fell back on the pillows.

"Damn you Kayo." Penny hissed, putting the remote on the bedside table.

"Ha-ha,"

"Awwwwh, why did you steal a boost off me?"

"'Cause I can." Kayo smirked.

"I feel so sorry for John for having to deal with this." Gordon moaned. I just smirked, leaning over to him, whispering, "But at least none of us have to deal with it!"


	11. Chapter 11 - Kayo

Chapter 11 – Kayo

 _Warning: some swearing in this chapter and upcoming chapters, I will try to keep it limited_

The last one and a half hours was just filled with me and Penelope using one of the free console games – which was effectively a rip-off Mario Kart game but modernised – and beating each other in the Grand Prix. Currently, I had won two and Penny had won two, so this was the decider. There was four races in each cup, and if we tied (which we did) there was an extension race, which we were currently on. Basically, whoever won this race won the 'level' on Mario-rip-off. Like all the races, we were 1st and 2nd, with the places constantly changing. Since we couldn't do customised characters yet, we had to go with pre-set characters. Penny went with one of the princess characters (it was stupid how much it looked like her) and a racing car with good speed but the square root of fuck-all acceleration. I went with a dinosaur that was probably meant to be Yoshi, and a racing bike that had relatively good acceleration, speed and off-road and all the other stuff. Basically, a standard bike. Once again, we was in the situation where we kept overtaking each other. And then, as if my luck wanted me to fail, my brothers entered. Which wouldn't normally be too bad, maybe under normal circumstances I may have even be happy, but when one of them knows I have to sit down and is probably so determined that he will tackle somebody to get them to do something, well…

"Kayo," Virgil snapped within the first five seconds of being in the room, "You're not meant to be sitting-"

"Shh," I hissed. Maybe I should have looked up and said hello, but the race was way too tense, and I swear I was not losing to Penny, especially on a bike, the thing I was used to driving.

"Kayo-" He tried again, walking over to the side of the bed.

"One minute, I hissed at him, hovering behind Penny for a few seconds and nicking a speed-boost, before skidding in front of her. Then we just fell back, finally taking a breath. To be fair, if she wanted to win, she should not have taught me that.

"Damn you Kayo!" She hissed under her breath, dumping the remote on one of these allegedly bedside-tables before fussing Sherbet who, once again, fell asleep on the pillow as soon as he came in, laying on his back and snoring. Once again.

"Ha-ha," I said, tossing the remote in the air and catching it, shifting down on the bed slightly, grinning at her smugly.

"Awwwwwwwwh," She moaned, "Why'd you steal a boost off me?"

"'Cause I can," I said, then whispered, "Your fault for teaching it to me,"

"Rude," Penny said, then turned to Gordon and Alan, who were whispering in the doorway. "Oi, you two," she said, "Whispering is ruuuuuuude!"

"We were just commenting on how much John is going to enjoy his time looking after both of you," Gordon spoke up. God, for a moment I was able to forget how annoying his voice was. What a good time that was, but now it's ruined again.

"John?" I asked. When a Bitch-face (yes, their species is now called that) told me that one of the Tracy's would, they just said Mr Tracy. It felt wrong to hear them as that, Mr Tracy's, but technically they all were. "Has John stacked it yet?"

"Yup." Alan said.

"Not surprised," I whispered, then quickly took a sip of my drink.

"KAYO!" Grandma said. Oh, didn't realise she was there. She must have been hiding behind them, or just came in at the wrong moment. " _Oops_ ," I whisper, which sends Penny laughing under her breath at the fact I got in trouble. Normally, if I got in trouble – scratch that, _when_ I got in trouble – it was with Scott. I rarely got in trouble with Grandma. And here was one of these rare times I was.

"Hi Grandma," I say as innocently as I could, which sent everybody else laughing. I just got the dirtiest look know to man from Grandma, before she walked over to one on the plastic chairs, sitting down. "So, how'd this all happen?"

"I dunno." I say genuinely. I legitimately don't. At that time, EOS came over. I only know its EOS because Brains sent Penny a picture, with the caption 'The EOS probe is done!' I just smiled, and patted the bed next to me. I still couldn't believe that John's overly-organised and serious programming made something as sweet and gentle as her. She just hopped up on the bed, then curled up next to me. I just loop an arm around her waist, amazed at how she's already used to all these actions.

"Fine. How much do you remember of what happened?"

"Ugh," I say, leaning back into the pillow. Sherbet finally got up, looking around hazily, before walking over to me and curling up on my stomach and falling straight asleep again. I decide just to list things because details wouldn't come. And this time, the things that Colonel Casey didn't tell me, because they should already know them. "I can remember after John sent Scott down to Ecuador or wherever it was, he sent Gordon to help a fishing-trawler and sent me to go check on a warehouse 'cause the GDF seemed dodgy about a theft or something. And I went there and got in the warehouse and then I saw Colonel Casey and some other lieutenants talking about Thunderbird 4 and then I…" As I look up from the pug, I can see everybody exchanging looks. "What?" I ask. Nobody answered. "What's wrong?" I ask again louder.

"Kayo… I don't think that's quite right…" Virgil said, sitting down on the end of the bed. I just stare at him, confused. Not right? Was I not remembering clearly? No, those memories seemed way more vivid. But were they wrong?

"The GDF told us differently, and they were there on the scene." Grandma said, going even paler then she was already.

"Well, maybe they're wrong," Gordon said.

"No, I don't think they would be. It may just be something from the concussion." Virgil said.

"Let's just give it time," Grandma said.

"Also," Alan said, diverting the subject, "Weren't you helping John unpack?"

"No. He has one of his stupid rotas on how to unpack."

"Oh, so I can't say it's likely for him to fall because of gravity differences, but you can say that?" I ask, shifting over slightly for EOS to have more room on the bed. EOS just seemed content on fussing the sleeping pug. Feeling things physically must be new for her as well, so she must be quite confused. Bless her.

"I can say it. Because they can't do anything about it."

"Well, we can't really do too much to her! She's in hospital! That's just worse than the can't-hit-a-girl rule!" Gordon exclaimed from the corner.

"Oh well." Grandma said. Just then there was a knock on the door. I couldn't see through the glass door because they were tinted so you could only see inn from the outside. Effectively, loads of those bitch-faces could be watching me and I wouldn't know.

"Probably John," Grandma said, standing up. "Come on kiddos, let's go." She said, before pausing. "EOS, do you want to stay with John or come to Tracy Island?" 

"Can I stay here?" She whispered, resting her head on my shoulder. How can she be comfortable like this? Because she hasn't been through what I have, and I'm happy she hasn't. But the idea always seemed a foreign one to me. Still, she was enjoying it, so I didn't stop.

"'Couse you can. The rest of you, come on, shoo." She said, as everybody else filed out, leaving me and EOS, with Penny carrying out Sherbet holding him like a baby. After saying goodbye, she left, along with everybody else. Just leaving EOS leaning against me, the room absolutely silent except the machines.

"Kayo?" Eos asked, looking up slightly.

"Yeah?" I said.

She opened her mouth to say something, then hesitated, before asking something else. "Can you do my hair up for me? It's annoying me a bit."

"Sure. What do you want?" I said. I knew a lot of them, purely because, when we were younger, Penny had relatively short hair, whereas my hair almost reached my hips. Penny, who loved doing braids and whatnot, always used to do it on my hair, and I watched it in the mirror. I began to learn what to do and what they were called.

"Do you know how to do French braids?"

"Yep. How many do you want?"

"Can I have two please?"

"Sure," I say, then get to work. I struggled a bit on the part on the head, but once it became a normal plait, I was fine. As I was just finishing the last one, John finally came in. As soon as he saw me tying the band on the end of the braid, he staggered backwards, almost drunk.

"I think my eyes are broken. You? Doing braids, Kayo?" He asked.

"Oh, I thought, and I quote from last time you were down 'Gravity despises you and is pulling a prank on you'." I say, flicking the braid down in front of EOS.

"Ha-ha. Also, three things. One, sit down." John said, flicking a finger downwards.

"I am," I said. After checking the height of the bed he nodded.

"Fair enough. Next, the hospital wants to do an operation to try and stitch up your side. You've heard of Repercussion operations, haven't you?" John asked. Of course I had. They were formed during the Global Conflict, when too many people were getting shot. How it worked was they had these layers of muscle and skin and other tissues, and they graph them together to help the regrowth. However, afterwards, people can get fevers and temperatures and whatnot. Some other things happen during the operation, and you have to take these pills for weeks afterwards to prevent infections, and it cut off most nerves on that area. "That's cool," I say. I've had fevers before and, honestly, I preferred that over this pain in my side.

"That's cool," I say

"Okay, you just need to sign this paperwork. Blue boxes," John said, giving me two sheets of paper and a pen. These were just so, if anything went wrong, we couldn't sue them, unless they admitted they cocked up. I signed them, then handed them back to John. "What was the third thing?"

He paused for a few moments, then handed the paper and pen to EOS. "Can you hand these into the reception?" EOS nodded, then walked out the room, closing the door.

"John?" I asked, looking at him, sitting up.

"I'm really sorry Kayo…It's… It's The Hood." He said, and any feeling of happiness or even mild joy left my body, leaving me feeling empty. "The GDF have reason to believe we was attempting to murder somebody in Parkmore Scrubs prison and they need somebody from his side of the family there. You're the only one left. You have to see him again."


	12. Chapter 12 - Kayo

Chapter 12 – Kayo

I don't quite think I ever wanted to just curl up in the part of my brain where nobody could get to me as much as I did now. The words sunk in, and it left me feeling sick, unsure of how to react. After I told my brothers about me being related to The Hood, they made a promise that I would never have to see him again, and I promised myself to never to see him for the fact that it would hurt my brothers with the whole Jeff incident. After that, I was finally able to relax and enjoy life without the worry of him ruining everything. But now I had to see him again. Even worse, he tried to kill somebody else. I was related to somebody who was probably a mass murderer. I felt like I did when I was younger, after I met him and then… I don't even want to revisit it. I didn't know how to even put into words how I felt, but it was a lot worse than the effects of the bullet. It was like betrayal even though I didn't trust him for a second. Or like being the most upset you have been in years, even though virtually nothing happened. It was one of those things that just left you drained or feeling exposed raw; something you just wanted to run away from and never look back.

"Kayo, I'm really sorry," John said, picking up one of my hands in his. "Come here," he whispered, putting a hand on my back. I just let my head loll against his arm as I thought about the weeks to come. I'd have to relive everything. And the line-up to how my world turned around was _way_ too familiar to what's happening now. Eerily familiar. "Kayo," John began again, "You know we'll always be here when you need us, you know that. And if you ever need me I'm only a call away, okay? I mean, if you want, I, or even one of my brothers, can come with you to the trial-"

"No, don't" I interrupted, looking up at him. "I don't want you or any of your brothers hurt by him. I don't even want to risk it. I can go alone, it'll be best." I started to fiddle with my hair again, twisting the ends of the ponytail around my fingers.

"Sometimes I really don't know what to think of you," John said, looking down at me, "You're in hospital and you have God knows how many drugs running through your system, you know you're having an operation that's going to give you the flu or something along those lines and I've just told you you're going to have to see the biggest a-hole in the world, and then you go and say you're willing to take the trial on by yourself just so he doesn't blackmail us. I hope you know, if he does, I shall be the first one to smash his face in, probably followed by the rest of our brothers."

"Awh, now you're nicking my job," I pretended to sulk, crossing my arms. As the door opened, we both looked around to see EOS come back in with paper still in her hands.

"John, YOU had to sign those boxes, not Kayo. She had to sign the yellow boxes, and you were the blue boxes. Idiot," She said, throwing a pen at him. He didn't even attempt to catch it, or at least, so it seemed. The pen smashed into his temple I decided that, if I hadn't met her before, I would have definitely started liking her now.

"OW!" John said, putting a hand to his temple. "Calm down, EOS. Remember, _gra-vi-ty_. You need to get used to that!"

"You make it sound like you can last three days on Earth. This whole trip will be fun!" EOS smirked, then hopped onto the end of the bed, crossing her legs after a bit of difficulty.

"Urgh," John said, rolling his eyes, picking up one of the glass cups and filling it with water from an iced jug. He handed one to EOS, then did another one for me and then finally doing one for himself. Normally, we wouldn't allow him glass cups, just plastic beakers. Because what happens when you bring somebody who's used to the minimal gravity of the empty vacuum we call space down to a planet? But why not have some fun?

"Is this Virgil's sketchpad?" EOS asked, picking up the freebie sketchpad. Before we could answer, she was continuing again, drawing something. "Kayo, does this look like rose? And how do I do the stalk?" I leant over to pick up the sketchpad, but instead there was writing, the words slightly italic and in bold capitals.

 _How long do you bet it'll be until he drops the glass? I'm guessing five minutes_ , it read.

"Good," I said, scooting down next to her, away from John, "Except the thorns look a bit more like this," I picked up the pencil that came with the sketchpad and wrote next to it _, I bet around three. Whoever wins gets to give him a dead arm_.

"Okay," EOS said, and I had to guess by her grin she thought it was a good thing to win.

"Can I see?" John said, and EOS just hugged the sketchpad to her chest. "Nope," She said innocently, "It's going to be your present, and I don't want it ruined for you." God, she was already good at lying and covering up!

"Okay," John laughed slightly, and I don't know why, but he just sounded like Jeff. Almost too much. "Okay, I done my signatures, we just need yours now, Kayo," he said, passing it back.

"Cool," I said, picking up the pen. But as I was just about to put the signature in the box, John grabbed my wrist. "Are you sure you want to do this?" He asked.

"Yes, I kind of realised I'd have to have an operation after I got shot. It's what normally happens." I said, pushing his wrist off before signing the boxes, then swinging my legs over the side of the bed, folding the papers in half. "Where's the reception? I'll go take it over there," I said.

"No, you won't!" John said, then the all-too-familiar clashing of glass came from John's direction. When I turned around to look at him, he was just staring at the floor, looking like he wanted to go punch something.

"Bagsy not clearing that up!" EOS said, shooting her hand up in the air.

"Grr," John hissed, whipping up the bigger pieces of glass up with his hands. Then he just swept the rest of it beneath the bed. "Sorted," he said.

"Also, how long do you reckon that was?" EOS said, looking at me with a smug look on her face. It didn't take me long to click on.

"About four maybe,"

"Would you like to do the honours?" she said, gesturing theatrically at John with one hand.

"I say we both do," I said, looking over to the baffled and still slightly annoyed John.

"Oooooh, I like that," EOS said, sitting next to John on the bed.

"Are you two okay?" John asked, bewildered.

"Hey, John, who's your favourite kid on that talent show?" She said, looking up at him. I had to guess it was one of the got-talent shows.

"Eleanor Guard," He said, and I knew who he was on about in an instant. Ella from Britain. She was a singer who got through immediately because the judges liked her so much. She did dancing with droids and programmed loads of graphics, something that became popular recently. But, as I just said, it was popular, so they had to rip off Star wars, and THEN ripped off Romeo and Juliet. Personally I hated then, but if so much as one droid comes on, both John and Brains are going to go goggle-eyed in a second.

"Mmm hmm, and what 'bout Cosmo?" EOS asked. Cosmo, well, imagine Ashleigh and Pudsey but imagine Ashleigh as this hella camp man and Pudsey as a tuxedo cat. They were flipping brilliant, let's put it as that. But John had a mass grudge against them.

"Overrated," John said, and at that moment EOS just gave me an _I-give-up_ look, then smashed a fist into his arm.

"Ow, what was that for?" He said, practically yelping. In answer, she just handed him the sketchpad.

"Like, my processors in my hand are _legit_ killing me now," EOS said, "But then again, I do not regret it. Not one bit,"

"That isn't even fair. If I betted on you punching somebody every time you used Thunderbird S then I'd be rolling in the dough!"

"But you don't so that's okay," I said, high-fiving EOS.

"Oh, don't tell me you're both teaming up. PLEASE tell me you're not!" John whined.

"Hell yeah," EOS said, looking at the clock on the table. "6.28. You need to be in the operation by 11 pm. And the talent show starts in two minutes…"

"Fine, we can watch the talent show," John said, then paused. "If that's okay with Kayo. This is her room, after all." 

"'Couse it is," I say, sitting back up against the pillow, EOS coming over to sit between me and John. Whilst John sorted out the holo-projector, EOS looked up at me, whispering, "You still haven't given him a dead arm." 

"Oh, don't worry, I'm waiting for my moment." I took a sip of my drink, then paused. "When did he last have a shower?"

"Err," EOS said, trying to count the days. "Too long ago," she hissed under her breath.

"Well, it's about to change," I say, topping up the water in the glass. As I put down the water jar, I noticed EOS hadn't touched her glass of water. "You haven't touched your water, EOS," I say a bit louder. "Your systems won't work if you don't get water in them."

"How do I drink it then?" EOS said, picking it up and fumbling with a black straw I put in the glass.

"Just suck in using the straw," John said, flicking through the programs.

"Okay, EOS said, then tried it. A few seconds later, she started coughing. "I don't want to get water in my motherboard, John!"

"Okay, just try again," I said softly, and after a few attempts she got the hang of it. I appeared to be right about her systems being parched, or just her being thirsty. After she got the hang of it, she had three more glasses, and what happens when you drink that much? You need to have a piss. She got the hang of that one first try, and thank God she did!

The talent show was in the final round, with 7 of the 10 acts going well in my eyes. Cosmo was in that, and a young 8-year-old who, let's just put it as, had the same power of her voice – if not better – than Susan Boyle or Peter Potts or Beau Dermott. One act had gone terribly wrong (well three, two others as well, but not in this form). A stunt man called Cori Heath decided it would be a great idea to do some pole-dancing-dive into spikes, thinking it would be fine. There was probably a safety rope on him somewhere. But I'm guessing it broke, because halfway down on the plummet, he suddenly jolted, and managed to skid himself to a halt, but his whole arm and part of his hip was bleeding. As for the droid lady, to John's despair, when doing a backflip she kicked a droid, and as it crashed it smashed into another droid, and then that one crashed into another droid and so on. It ended in a small fire onstage and a load of tears. I still think it was fake tears. The final act was a guy who sung impressions. However, he forgot who was coming up next and had to keep checking behind him for who was next. I felt sorry for him, but John thought otherwise.

"He's faking it," John said.

"Why would he fake that?" I asked.

"Well, come on, does he have a chance at winning? He's going to get sympathy votes now," 

"I don't think he meant it cock up."

"Language. And, besides, he probably knows he'll fail anyway."

"Rude!" I said, picking up the water. I had a quick sip of it, then poured the rest over John's head, tossing it in one go and careful to avoid EOS. "He would have wanted that," I say sweetly as he jolted forward.

"Kayo! That. Was. _Freezing_!"

"Good," I say, then look down at EOS. She had fallen asleep, sleeping against my arm. "John," I whisper, nodding down at her.

"She's probably shut down for the night, it explains why she didn't react when we were talking. I'll take her up to the flat," John said, scooping her up. "I'll just be a few minutes, okay?" He said, and I could tell now that he was holding EOS he was going maternal. Huh. I always thought Virgil was the maternal one, Gordon occasionally after some tequila (yes, he brought tequila once, and it ended up with me having to knock him out and drag him to bed because he was annoying everyone and anyone).

"I won't be a second," he said, opening the door and closing it behind him. After he went, I just carefully took out all the wires that was attached to my body, and stood up. It took me a few attempts, but soon I was walking without falling over. I went straight into the ensuite-type bathroom, closing the door on the emptiness of the immaculately clean and immaculately haunting hospital room. I just walked over to the sink, looking in the mirror. And then I saw what everybody else had saw, a girl who looked malnourished, a lot paler than usual, hair tied up in a ponytail with the ends slightly matted, and the same green-brown-gold eyes but glazed over. And then I start thinking back to what John said earlier, about me having to see The Hood again. I hated what we shared in common. The eyes. The black hair. The same small height. There was, what, about 25% genes in common after all (or maybe even 50%). And then I just crumple down to my knees, sitting on the floor, knees up to my chest and back against the white-painted cinder brick wall as my mind proposed a question, a question that my body didn't know how to react to.

Was the death of Jeff all because of me being related to The Hood?

 **Hello guys! Thank you so much for the reviews, they mean so much, and I promise to keep writing! I just thought I would inform you next week (commencing 6** **th** **June) I will be taking Art exams Monday to Saturday, so for these six days nothing will be posted because of revision and exam time. Because of this I will try to get some more chapters posted before or after this time to catch you up. As already said, thank you so much for every review, they mean so much and please, if you want to see anything, I will try to fit it in. Thanks again!**


	13. Chapter 13 - John

Chapter 13 – John

I have only noticed now, despite the amount of times me and my siblings had been taken to hospital for vaccinations and check-ups, and broken bones and so forth from missions, how soft the sheets are. Since Nano-Matrix took over the construction and creating of most objects and buildings, they had been substituted for the scratchy old sheets you got in the hospital rooms and flats, and, may I say, the duvets were _incredible_. So soft I was tempted to steal one when I had to leave, and put it in my bedroom in Thunderbird 5. I had only noticed this as I was tucking in EOS into the single bed in the second bedroom in the flat. Her room had cream walls, pale soft carpeting and lilac curtains and rug. This room was quite small compared to usual rooms, a box room, really, but in comparisons of her "room" in Thunderbird 5, it was gigantic. As you walked in, to the left was the bed, the head against the same wall as the door. To the right was a wall, and in front of you was a built-in white closets to the immediate left and immediate right, and in the centre between them white shelves, that stretched from one closet to the other. There was a window above the bed, and opposite it was a mirror. I mean, no, not jealous at all… heh…

I searched around in one of the drawers in EOS' beside table, fishing out a soft toy. I had won this an arcade a while ago, but all of us had grown out of the stage where we want soft toys, so I just kept it. Now though, I thought EOS might want it. It was a soft, white bunny, made of fluffy white material and a floral-patterned fabric for the inside of the ear and the pads of its feet. Because EOS was laying on her side, it was easy to tuck it beneath her arm. Hopefully she would like it. I draw the curtains closed, and switched on the lamp on the shelf, setting it on the lowest setting so she wouldn't be completely in the dark when she turned on. I left and closed the door as quietly as possible, walking over to the kitchen to grab a drink.

The flat was a relatively small one as I wouldn't be staying here long, located in a building at the back of the hospital. As you entered the flat, there was a kitchen area to your right, with dark wood and black marble counters and cabinets, an oven with electric hobs and grill and silver fridge. There was an island in the centre of the floor, two stools on one side of the island with – guess what! – Dark wood legs and black fabric for the seating. There were white tiles on the floor and wall that made sure it didn't look too dark. To the right was a small round mahogany dining table, with four mahogany chairs around it and a candle in a holder in the centre with three bowls; a bowl of Malteasers, a bowl of tortilla chips, and bowl with little sauce containers, the paper-dish containers you'd get in a takeaway, covered with tin foil. In front of you was two cream sofas, the sort of sofas that you just sink into no matter how far you sit forwards, and a cream recliner, all shaped in an arc around a holo-projector. I had already checked, and there was all the programs you could get, as well as free movies and Internet browsing. There was a window on the wall opposite the front door, which overlooked a local woods, and on the other two walls there were 2 doors. The doors on the right of the room were the bathroom and a closet with all sort of machines in, for when a patient presumably wanted to stay in the flat. The other two was the bedrooms. EOS' rooms was furthest away, and then my room was closest – a room with three white walls and one dark red wall; a four-poster bed between two alcoves at the furthest wall and built in closets and cupboards on one wall. Unfortunately, I did not have a window, but instead I had a holo-projector inserted at the end of the bed.

I grabbed one of the Pepsi cans out of the fridge, opening it and pouring it into a plastic bottle with a blue cap. I dumped the empty can into the recycling and grabbed a packet of fruit chews. There's still at least 2 hours until Kayo's sent in for the operation, and 1 and a half hours until I have to knock her out with anaesthetic, an hour and 10 minutes when I actually get down to her room.. Oh, did I not mention that? I have the delightful job of knocking out the most hostile girl I know and being despised for it. I mean, hopefully I'd find a way to get her to sleep before I have to knock her out, but the chances of that were extremely low, I thought to myself as I left a note for EOS in case she 'woke up'. The chances of her falling asleep willingly? About the same chance that Gordon will get a girlfriend, which is effectively zilch. Besides, she was still very excited from the final of the talent show. What could bring her down from that excitement?

As soon as I walk through the door, my heart starts racing. Kayo isn't in the bed, and the wires are just laying strewn across the bed and the blanket in a huddle at the end of the bed. The holo-projector sitting on top of it, chattering to itself.

"Kayo?" I begin to look around the room, dumping the bottle and sweets on the bedside table, looking for her. Not hiding anywhere. Not in the machine closet. Not in the bathro-. After a second look, I can just see her in the shadows, one leg up to her chest and arms around it, the other leg outstretched, staring at the floor.

"Kayo?" I walked over to her, squatting down. I could ask what's wrong but that would be rhetorical and useless. It's not hard to guess what's making her like this – of course it's the Hood. The whole impact must have hit her just now. I can't blame her for reacting like this – currently only me and Scott knew, and when we were told, we both started shouting pointlessly. And Kayo had it much worse than us. "Hey, come on," I whisper, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. "You wanna talk 'bout it?" I realise it's a daft question. She just shrugged, rubbing her fingers against her temple. Probably either the migraine or the medicines the wires were feeding her. Then I realise – the wires! She probably still needs the meds that's in them!

"Kayo, come on, let's go back to the room, okay? If you want to talk about it we can, and if not then we can watch something on TV and I've got some fruit chews and Pepsi and we can just forget about it, okay?" I try to be gentle, but there's part of me that just wants to go punch The Hood for doing this to her. I gently pull her up, but it's hard to tell whether she was planning on getting up or not, because the drugs had made her quite weak, and whilst things like walking were okay, getting up from sitting on the floor like she was, well, just nope. After I manage to plug all the wires back in, I look at the clock. Only an hour 'til I had to knock her out. Damn.

"You okay?" I ask, sitting next to her on the bed, leaning against the pillow like she was, back against.

"Yeah," she whispered back.

"Wanna talk about it?"

"No, just…" she sighed, laying down on the bed, "Some people are bastards. He's the biggest one of all time."

"I don't encourage the use of that language, but I'll let you off." I turn down to look at her.

"I'm not wrong, am I?"

"Well… No but…" I could already hear her laughing. Clever little… "Fine. But a) don't you dare tell Scott I'm letting you get away with that or else I swear I will beat you up, and b) for the love of God do NOT say ANY swear words in front of EOS!"

"Well, a) EOS probably already knows them if she keeps listening to different frequencies for rescues, and b) I would _love_ to see you try and beat me up!"

"I will, and I swear if not I'll prank you. Somehow." I sigh, and for a moment silence pervaded the room, the only noise being the beeping from the arsenal of machines around Kayo.

"John?" Kayo looked up at me, breaking the silence.

"Yeah?" I sat up, grabbing the Pepsi and putting a straw in it, then handed it to Kayo. She just took it in one hand, then started fiddling with the straw as I grabbed the sweets and holo-projector.

"You know you share 50% of your DNA with each parent?"

"Yeah?" I could already see where this was going.

"And 25% with each grandparent?"

"Yep." Here we go. 

"How much would you share with one of your parent's brothers or sisters?"

"Kayo, you're not related to Him that much." She just looked at me, then shrugged. "I mean, technically you share the origin of your genes from The Hood, yeah, but when it becomes DNA it's only, what 13.5% or something stupid like that, more likely less. And just because some set of chromosomes are the same between you and him does not mean in one way, shape, or form that he is part of you or your life. You choose your family in life, and whilst my brothers and I chose to go with biological family, we still had the choice. And you have the choice, and, honestly, I have so much respect for you choosing not to just let some pieces of crappy DNA make you sad and unhappy. And, Kayo, you'll always have a place with us, and if for some weird reason you don't, I'll always still be here for you, and I'm bloody confident EOS and Virgil will as well. And Penny, since you two are – what d'you call it? – besties."

"Posh word you," Kayo laughed, "But seriously, thank you."

"Why the Hell are you thanking me? You'd do the same for us, I full well know you will and already _have_ , and I promise you no matter what happens, you'll have me and EOS regardless.

"Can I ask you another question?" Kayo said, taking a sip out the Pepsi.

"'Course you can."

"How comes you can swear and I can't?"

"Well how about tonight, we can swear, but after that we go back to normal?"

"You're only doing that so you don't get in trouble," Kayo smirked, rolling her eyes, "Fine."

"Well, supposing I was, I'm letting you off the hook."

"What a change!" She said, looking through the program guide. At that time, a nurse came in, and I could already hear Kayo muttering something about the nurse under her breath.

"Hello," she said bubbly. I could already hear Kayo tutting under her breath. "How are you two going?"

"Fine," I answered for Kayo, because I could already tell Kayo was going to give a sarcastic answer.

"That's good to hear," The nurse said, checking over the machines. "You've got a Repercussion in an hour and a half, isn't that correct?" Kayo just nodded. That meant half an hour to knock her out.

"Don't worry, we'll take care of your, um…" She gestured at Kayo.

"Sister. She's my little sister." I said, looping an arm around her shoulders.

"Ah, that's nice," She said, swapping a tank for another one in one of the machines. "Anyway, I'll be off. Just call us if you need anything at all, okay?"

"Of course," I said as she walked out.

"Slut," Kayo muttered as soon as the door was closed.

"What did we say about swearing?"

"You literally _just_ said we could tonight!" Oh yeah. Sometimes I hated how clever she was.

"Doesn't mean its okay." I said, putting a few fruit chews in her hand. She just examined the chews, then swapped a green chew for a purple one. "Is there a reason you did that?" I asked.

"Yeah. Because lime tastes like a lemon ate some broccoli and then had some bladder problems and pi-" She looked at me, then decided to change the word last minute "Weed out some disgusting broccoli-lemon juice. Blackcurrants just taste nice." She said, tossing a chew in the air before catching it in her mouth.

"Yeah, whatever," I said, looking at the projector. "What ya watchin'?"

"Meerkats!" She said, giving it to me. "Oh, God," I said, "Are you going to want a meerkat after this?" I asked. Kayo shrugged, "Maybe."

"Okay, but if you do get one, I am not responsible for cleaning it's poo up." I said, settling down into the pillow a bit further. Stupidly, I found myself getting attached to the meerkats as the twenty-minute show went on. I think Tyrone and Sophie was my favourite, followed by Squeaker. But I wasn't sure on Izzie. She seemed nice, but I didn't trust her creepy eyes.

"Kayo?" I whispered, but as I looked down I could see she had nodded off on my arm, one hand closely wrapped around her glass of coke, the other holding the duvet around her, pulled up to her neck. Was this seriously happen? Did I just get the best bag of luck I could ask for? I slowly slide the Coke out of her hand, and turn off the holo-projector, putting it in a draw in the bedside table. Carefully, I coax my arm from underneath her out, and climb out, wrapping the whole blanket around her and put her oxygen machine on and take out the oxygen mask _er_ , a wire they had to put on because she had a habit of taking her oxygen mask off. Then, regretfully, I turn up the flow for the anaesthetic via a dial. I wait for a few minutes to see if she'd wake up, but as expected she didn't.

And now she's out cold, I finally begin to debate what will happen if this goes wrong? Will she still be able to do missions? Will she be grounded forever? What are the chances of her getting a coma? Or that something in her side will get infected, or worse? Are there chances that she won't wake up again? That she'll die in the operation? Or will the fever or flu or virus she may get after this take her out? Will the whole stress of The Hood's trial end up stressing her into another sickness, maybe a sickness that could lead to death? What if I never get to talk to her again? What if I never get to tell her about everything I thought about her from day one?

Before leaving the room, I lean down and plant a kiss on her forehead, then leave silently.


	14. Chapter 14 - Scott

Chapter 14 – Scott

We closed in on the affected area in Japan, with me in front and Thunderbird 2 shortly behind. So, guess what happened? Whoever guessed 'an earthquake' or 'seismic activity' or anything along those lines gets an award called 'congrats-you-got-common-sense', and whoever guessed that we'd need heavy-duty work by the appearance of Thunderbird 2 gets first place.

"Thunderbird 1, you seeing that I'm seeing?" Virgil questioned over the comms. Rain was pattering down on the ships, setting the surrounding world in a hazy grey, but we could still make out each other's voices

"Yep," I answered. All down the slopes you could see lumps of debris, the occasional child running to its mother, or a dog or deer running loose. But this was only a 1.2 magnitude earthquake, not an earthquake really but an after-tremor, which had corrupted a local train rails and half the mountain. This, added with the recent rain, resulted in utter disaster. Most of the Japanese population had been evacuated to China, India, France, America and Italy to minimise disasters in the terms of injury and death. However, about one million of the 37 million people who lived – or used to live – in Japan were still here. And, unfortunately, about 300 people were on the train. The train was now dangling for its life. Carts one and two were dangling off the rails completely, the fourth cart still on the rails but sitting diagonally and on its side; the third was teetering, half on half off the rails. The winds kept rocking the first two carts, which did not help in the slightest, and that mixed with the limited visibility of the rain made this relatively easy mission (for us, anyway) a hard one. Cart four had been evacuated by local services and authorities, but the other three were filled to capacity. There were already reports that two people were injured in cart one.

"Okay, here's the plan. I'm going to send down Gordon and Alan down with the tow lines and get them to hook it between the intersections of cart three and two, and two and one. Once they're clear I'll use the grappling cables to secure carts one and three, then haul it up onto the undamaged rails. Scott, you'll need to support cart two whilst we do this. I'll give you a call once you need to let go. Also, if anything goes wrong, you'll have to sort it out or warn us Thunderbird 1. All clear?" Virgil said, hovering over the train.

"F.A.B," I replied, flying around for a bit until I found an area where I could clearly see the train, intercept if needed and not be too close to Thunderbird 2 (just in case Thunderbird 2 needed to quickly move). As soon as I saw Alan and Gordon heading down with the cables, I attached the grappling cable to cart 2, and tried to pull the train as horizontally as possible without tripping up my brothers or pulling the train completely off and, most importantly, making sure nobody is injured in this attempt. I watched with an eagle-eye view, making sure my brothers were okay. It took about a minute for the tow lines to be fully secured to the intersections of the carts and for Alan and Gordon to clear off the train and onto safe ground, before Thunderbird 2 turned on vertical thrusters.

"Thunderbird 1, am I clear?" Virgil questioned over the comms.

"Yep, all clear from my view," I replied, letting go of the second cart and clearing out the area. Despite the low visibility, I can see Thunderbird 2 directing up the carts onto the undamaged rails, pausing a few times to check where was best. But then again, who can't see a giant green flying blob? But soon, as I only learned by an announcement over the comms, the train was safe, and the people were evacuated.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

After an hour of helping people in the medical tent, the heavy downpour of rain turned into a misty drizzle, and we decided it would be a good idea to help clearing up the debris and shifting the mud and boulders down the mountain. We had agreed that Virgil would use the 'proper' equipment, or the electrical equipment in the POD, to clear up the left side of the mountain if Alan, Gordon and I cleared the less-affected right side with shovels and forks and pitchforks and rakes and hoes and other amateur equipment. Most of the mud had somehow half-solidified, turned into little pebbles that, as soon as you touched them, broke the delicate layer of dirt/solidified mud and oozed with brown liquid mud. We had mastered to try and pry the lumps off important wires and trapped people and any extra important sections by shoving the rocks downwards, which usually meant having a very muddy climb to be above the area. That, or have really good aim when it came to this. Turns out none of us had the exact detail to pry the dried areas away blind, which when looked at made sense. Now normally I would not mind this, but when I had utterly painful jokes coming from Alan and Gordon, jokes that could be nominated for the cringiest joke of the 2060's, better yet, _win_ the award, well…

"Hey, that catch earlier was a good one, Gordo," Alan said, stabbing at am obviously wet patch of mud. I could see that bit – the intersection nearly broke, and then I saw Gordon run towards one of the links… Then I hit a blind spot. I could infer it went okay, though, as Gordon's mouth would not shut and the train held in there to be lifted up and evacuated. So, of course, his head was as big as ever. Just what I needed if I had to fly them home.

"Well, what can I say? Improv is my speciality. Now, how'd we celebrate?"

"Get Grandma to make you a cape for your improv? That way you can look like some sort or superman when you do it?"

"The only sort of cape he'd want," I butted in, already exhausted of their 'banter', "Is one with his fellow squids to go along with his squid-sense."

"Yeah!" Alan exclaimed. Uh-oh. _Please_ don't say I just aided their stupid conversation! "Why not have a super-squid cape for sea missions and a superman cape for other rescues?"

"Nah, I feel like Grandma would kill me if I asked for a cape," Gordon said. Thank God, I thought, so grateful they did not just turn IR into a bad-humoured laughingstock, "I say we need to get more out of it. How about a sing-off on the way home and then films, Al?" I just groaned under my breath. Films? Sure, as long as they kept it down. Sing-off? Kill me now.

"YEAH! Wait, what did we used to sing as kids? Ten yellow PODs like that ten-sleeping-monkeys thing, and what was the other one? It was meant to be the Three Green Bottles song, remember?"

"Five IR Pilots," Gordon said, prying off a large amount of liquid earth off the cliff, trying to make a pathway for the local authorities to get up. I wasn't going to mentioned that they missed out syllables or added one in in their stupid songs.

"Oh yeah. We _need_ to do them!" Alan said, and I just pray to God that I won't end up deaf or with brain damage from their singing or something along those lines.

"And what film?"

"Frozen. The new one, not the 2013 one. And I was thinking Solar Eclipse?"

" _Yassss_!" Gordon exclaimed, and I was dreading that this would be another night where, although we needed sleep like we needed oxygen, we wouldn't get it.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

After another three or so hours, we had finally managed to clear up enough muck to have ensured the mountain as relatively safe. The local authorities now had to scan the area for weapons and bombs and such. Normally, this wouldn't happen, as it was just caused by rain suspicions would be low, but something else was up. After The Hood was arrested formally by Kayo and taken into the custody of the GDF, he warned her of a bigger threat to come. This, although all my brothers and I thought he was just playing, the GDF took it seriously. And as, when The Hood was officially no longer a phantom and an actual phantom he used bombs to cause tectonic shifting, with the Pacific plate playing up, suspicions were running extremely high. They didn't take these things likely, and as I had pointed out to them several times, this may just

I had just finished packing up the equipment used on the mud after washing them all down and putting them in a black suitcase. After having a quick word with Colonel Casey, who may I say seemed weird but it was probably from lack of sleep, I was prepared to leave. Thunderbird 2 had already left with Gordon and Alan thankfully, so there would be no faffing around on my part. I picked up the case of tools, but as I headed to Thunderbird 1 I was caught off guard when a guy, dressed in grey and with floppy light-brown hair going everywhere, ran into me. I was caught off balance by the momentum, and the only thing that stopped me from falling flat on my side was the black case.

"Oh, I-I'm so sorry," He said, suddenly backing away from me as I got myself back up.

"No, don't worry about it. It was just a..." My words slowed as I noted a green-yellow badge on his dark grey blazer, sitting on the lapel like most badges. Where had I seen it before? "… It was just an accident," I finished off quickly as soon as I noticed my last few words had slowed at the discovery. He just nodded, then continued jogging down to see somebody.

As I was flying back home, after throwing the case in the cargo bay and informing Brains I was coming home, I began to replay the encounter in my head. There had I seen that little badge before? Then it hit me, and a cold shiver ran down my spine.

The Hood had that badge on his tie, as I had seen the day he was arrested. He had _that_ badge. That exact badge! And then questions started bubbling in my head. Who was he? Was he in contact with The Hood? Was this another 'agent'?

Was this linked to the 'new threat'?


	15. Chapter 15 - John

Chapter 15 – John

Every second seemed to last a minute, and every minute an hour. I just sat on one of the cream sofas in the flat, the TV playing a movie premiere but the images dulled out, music playing in my ear via headphone but the noise drowned out. I checked the Roman-style clock above the TV. 11.39 pm. Kayo was sent in at 9.30 pm (it was meant to be 9 pm but due to an emergency call or something along those lines, she had to wait an extra half hour for the Repercussion). She had been in theatre for just over two hours. After hanging around her hospital room for a while, dreading all the questions running through my head, I was told by some nurses to leave Kayo's room rather abruptly, being told they had to keep her out cold because of an emergency that had moved her Repercussion to 9.30, so I headed back up to the flat in case EOS turned back on, or in human terms woke up, because she'd have no idea where the Hell she was or how to get down and find me. The last time I left her alone, despite not knowing she even _existed,_ well, let's put it as now I know what it's like to suffocate slowly and painfully from lack of oxygen and I saw my little brother's near death when she took over Thunderbird 5 - and I do _not_ want to try it again. And while I know she won't do that again and these previous actions were brought on by fear, I just still want to be there for her. And after the twenty-odd minute walk up to the flat, I had been using and testing all of the equipment the hospital had given us, trying to distract myself from my nagging thoughts. Nothing proved to work. The TV was only drowned out by my rambling mind. When I tried to cook myself some pasta, I managed to drop it and burned myself three times (well, burnt twice, scalded myself once). When I gave up and decided to just have a cold bagel, there was no taste to it. The videogames were about as useful as the previous when I couldn't focus and died seven times; music proved just as entertaining. My brothers were on a mission so I couldn't just call them for nothing. I even tried drawing, but it made no difference to my immense boredom and I only managed to begin drawing a candle, which looked more like some sort of cactus. Then I tried writing what I was thinking but despite the amount of words I know, I couldn't describe it for a second. Eventually, I just sat down, sipping at a glass of water, about a third of the fruit chews sitting on the dining room table for EOS. I began to focus on the lyrics of the song playing down my ear Grandma originally showed this song, and although it was an old song, scratch that, ancient in our terms, I downloaded it onto the freebie MP3 because I just liked it for some reason. I occasionally did this, anyway – once somebody in the family showed me a song they like, I download it so I can remember the person. But tonight, I wasn't thinking so much of Grandma. The song was called, I believe, _Everything Has Changed_ by Taylor Swift and Edward – wait no, his name was Ed, _Ed_ \- Sheeran.

 _I just wanna know you better now, know you better, know you better now,_

 _I just wanna know you, know you, know you,_

And then my thoughts flickered back to Kayo. And how, after a few weeks ago when we learnt her father's brother was The Hood, how differently I had looked at her. And not in a bad way, but in a way that made her seem stronger to just continue her job despite whatever crap The Hood threw at her. Almost blanking out one of the biggest pains in her life that she was obviously sensitive about, just to continue with her job at International Rescue. That's something my brothers and I definitely couldn't do, and if we could, not to the extent she did, which was to continue and come back without us suspecting anything. To come home and either put it behind her or to hide it so discreetly. But why hide it? To protect us maybe?

 _Come back and tell me why_

 _I'm feeling like I've missed you all this time:_

 _And meet me there tonight_

 _And let me know that it's not all in my mind._

And why the Hell was I interpreting her differently? Why did the discovery of a few strands of her genetic DNA suddenly restraining us from respecting her in the way we used to? So what? She just didn't get the best when it came to what family she was born into. Normally, I wouldn't give one in the slightest – okay, that was phrased wrong, let's try again. Normally that wouldn't change a thing on my perspective. But now I suddenly wanted to know everything. I wanted to know about every minute of her life, her thoughts and all. Because ultimately it would be something we'd never encounter in all our life, because whatever her past was like, it never happened in our childhood. Maybe it was just my curiosity. Maybe it was the protective-over-younger-brothers feeling I got with Virgil, Gordon and Alan which had extended to add my adopted sister in. Or maybe it was something else, something I didn't know yet.

"John?" A voice came from somewhere behind me. For a brief moment, I thought it was a nurse coming in to tell me that the Repercussion was over, but as I turn around, I see it's EOS, holding the bunny's arm in one hand, the other fiddling with her white dress which was ever-so-slightly creased, or maybe the light was just playing on it weirdly. "John, where are we?"

"Just in the flat, EOS," I said, gesturing for her to come sit down, glad to distract my mind from asking the questions I wish it wouldn't.

"Oh." She said, hopping up on the sofa, shifting herself around a bit before settling down. "Who's this?" She said, looking down at the bunny who she now held with both hands, thumbs under its arms and the ears looped around her fingers.

"I got it in an arcade game, the one with the claw. I thought you may want it." I said simply, turning in my seat slightly and putting the MP3 and glass of water down on a little glass coffee table and turning the TV down a bit. "What do you want to call it?"

"Barry," she answered immediately, and I just groaned. If she's like Alan was then I swear to the Lord… "What's wrong with Barry?" She tried to say seriously, but she was still laughing.

"You sound way too much like Alan to be real."

"Fine. What about Jemimatron the Third and a Half?

"Now you sound like Gordon!"

"Fineeee. What about Snowy?" 

"Your choice. I'll accept anything as long as it doesn't sound like Alan or Gordon." 

"Snowy it is," She said, hugging it to her chest. "Where's Kayo?"

"In theatre," I said, swallowing before flicking through the various programmes we were treated to on the TV.

"Oh God, what's the time?" She said, looking up at the clock. "Three and a half hours? Repercussion?"

"Three, actually. Her operation was half an hour late because of some emergency or something. And some Repercussions take ages."

"Also, bit of a weird question… You know Kayo was adopted by Jeff? When were the forms for adoption signed?" 

"Just before Dad… Y'know…" I tried to bite back the emotion I'd been feeling for all this time.

"Oh, sorry…" EOS just paused, staring down at the bunny toy. "Sorry, I didn't realise."

"It's fine. Anyway, why'd you wanna know?"

"I don't think she's fully adopted by your dad."

"Huh?" I was caught off-guard by that. "Why?"

EOS flinched when I asked why, so I'm guessing my words sounded more aggressive than what I intended to. "EOS?" I ask gently.

"Well, remember when Kayo first got shot and I wanted to talk to you? I was originally going to ask why the forms didn't say that she was your adopted sister, but then I blew off and started yelling at you for not caring about her. I _am_ sorry about that, by the way" She said, with genuine guilt in her voice. "Well, I turned on a while ago and I was looking through the paperwork and, well, she's not your sister. Your Dad disappeared before he could sign off the paperwork to confirm that she was your officially adopted sister." EOS said, and the impact hit me. No, he signed the paperwork! I _saw_ him! I saw him sign it, and so did Scott and Grandma and Kayo herself! He said he'd take it when he next visited Colonel Casey! He promised us, and made a special promise to Kayo too that she'd be one of us from now on! He was even prepared to get the paperwork to change her surname to Tracy so she could fit in! And we knew he took the papers because it wasn't in his usual pile of work on his desk!

"EOS," I said after a moments silence, "I saw Dad sign the paperwork with my own eyes, and I'm sure if you ask Kayo she saw it too. And he promised he'd take it to the GDF to get verified when he next visited Colonel Casey, and he never goes back on his word. Are you sure you weren't just missing a scan on the database?" Although I was trying to keep my voice calm, the urgency kept trying to return.

"Did you know where he was planning to go when his ship crashed?"

"No," I said, and that was one of the pieces of info in thousands I wish I knew. Where was he going?

"John… I think Jeff may have had that paperwork when he was flying and, thanks to The Hood, it disappeared along with him. She's not officially your sister. I'm sorry John." The words sent everything crashing down, as I relived the shock of Dad's disappearance, and thought of it as not only losing a parent but a sister, because if anything happened we would be split now she wasn't technically adopted. Just the thought of losing more people in IR was dreadful.

"Oh," I said, any words that could have been uttered being lost. I suddenly had the feeling where I was falling into an endless dark pit, with no way out. But I can't do what I normally do and run away to Thunderbird 5 and just sit in solitude until my mind has worked out what has happened like I normally do. I've got to look after EOS and, when she's out of theatre, Kayo…

"Anyway, let's forget about it for tonight," EOS said, curling up slightly next to me, "Is there any good programmes on?"

"Erm," I said, flicking through the channels. After some debate I put and arm around EOS. I always had a mini-debate before physical closeness, because it always seemed, well, odd. And how do you know what is a friendly gesture and what's not? And how do you know if the person actually _wants_ a hug or whatever else? "There's a programme you may like. Kayo showed it to me," I said, putting on the meerkat programme we were watching earlier on. Currently, a repeat of the one I watched (and Kayo watched most of before falling asleep) was on, followed by two new ones.

"You know what? I can see Kayo wanting to watch it. Anyway, let's give it a go," EOS said rather reluctantly, tucking her legs beneath her and leaning against me, fumbling with her bunny who I'm pretty sure is now called Snowy, but the chances its name will change are relatively high. By the end of it, her attitude had changed to the show.

"John, can we watch the next two? Can we, can we? I want to see if Sophie dies or not. Surely she can't!" She practically pleaded, tugging on my shirt. Amazing how a few fluffy animals can change her little robotic mind. And who said robots don't have emotions?

"I thought this was only, what did you say, 'a go because nothing else was on'?" I said, smirking.

"I said the first two words, not the rest," EOS said, looking up at me laughing.

"Tell you what, we'll put a series link on it so Kayo can watch it too. But you can't spoil them for her, okay? I'm sure she'll punch you. Actually, she wouldn't punch you. She'd probably punch me for letting you spoil it."

"Ooooooooh," EOS said, smirking, "How tempting,"

"How about no, no and double no?" I said, confirming the series link. I realised how weird it must look if somebody went on the TV; the only thing we're recording is meerkats surviving in a drought. At that moment, the door clicked open and a tall rounded man wearing a suit came in, the lighting from the hall making him a silhouette.

"Mr John Tracy?" He said, looking down at me and EOS. "Can you come with me please?"

"Yeah, of course," I said in a rush, turning off the TV and gesturing for EOS to come with me, holding her hand as we walked down to the door. I made sure I quickly snuck the fruit sweets in pocket for EOS, realising that her system, although mechanic, wouldn't cope without food/fuel. Sure, not the best thing ever to learn how to eat, but they'll do. The man lead us down to the main reception area and down some stairs into the family ward, and as I'm almost confident that I've finally gotten used to gravity levels on earth, well, points for whoever can guess what happens next.

When walking down the stairs, my footing suddenly went awry, and the next thing I knew I was skidding down the stairs. After a few seconds, I manage to haul myself back up, to see the man – let's call him Colin for now – looking really concerned. And then I see EOS laughing her head off behind me.

"Are you okay?" Colin asked, offering to help me up even though I was quite firmly standing.

"Yeah, just slipped." I said, shooting EOS the evils as she trotted down the stairs looking overly-smug, holding Snowy by one arm.

"Ah," Colin said, nodding then continuing to walk down the stairs. "We're almost there. Only one more flight now," Of course, even Colin mentioning it made EOS start giggling again.

And whilst I realise this is a little stereotypical/sexist (depends on your view of it)…

I can barely ever trust women. At least, the women in IR.

After another flight of stairs which, to EOS' disappointment, I did not fall down, we were led into a small room, painted with dark green walls and had at least a dozen of cream sofas in, which were the exact same type as the two in the flat, and one window which filtered sunlight. For a room that was almost a basement, it was extremely well-lit. There was only three people in the room; one was a woman who had mascara running down her face from crying, another a man around Virgil's age trying to comfort her, and the last a man sitting in a corner, hair over the majority of his face in a dark blazer. The blazer guy, as soon as we came in, gave me one brief look, before staring at EOS. As we walked across the room into a small office, he just kept staring at her. I could already feel her getting uncomfortable by him, and I swear to God if he so much as touched one hair on her I would do a Kayo and punch his face in. I mean, sure, she may have reminded him of his own kid, or maybe even his wife or his grandmother or a friend or somebody, but come on mate, no need to keep staring at her!

The office we were led into by Colin was a very tiny room, only enough to fit a mahogany desk and chair, along with two office chairs for guests. The walls were cinder blocks painted a sterling white like the rest of the perfectly clean hospital, and the floor was made of birch planks. Colin sat down on the mahogany chair and gestured for me and EOS to sit on the black office chairs.

"Sit down, please, make yourself comfortable!" Colin said, selecting out about five sheets of paper from the massive wad of, well, dead tree that was mushed together, "I'm Oliver and I'll be assisting both of you whilst Tanusha Kyrano's in hospital," Oh, he has a name. And it's not Colin. Oh well, he can be Oliver-Colin. "She's just come out a Repercussion, isn't that correct?"

"I think so," I said, holding EOS' chair to stop her swinging around in a circle and smashing her head open. Then again, if she did hurt herself, she'd be in the right place. "We were waiting to hear when she was out of theatre, and we thought you would knew if she was out or not."

"Ah, sorry to keep you waiting. I can confirm she is out of theatre." Oliver-Colin said, shuffling through one of his draws.

"Is she okay?" EOS asked, and then the room fell silent.

"Oliver, is she okay?" I repeat EOS' question but louder. Why the Hell isn't he answering?

"Yeah… Yeah, she's okay…" He muttered under his breath, still flicking through the draw.

"And what's that supposed to mean?" I snapped.

"Well, the Repercussion didn't quite go to plan…"

"What?" I snapped, standing up.

"John, sit down," EOS whispered, pulling my arm down. I reluctantly slumped down, ready to strangle him if necessary.

"Please, we don't accept hostile activity within Royal Oakley Hospital," Oliver-Colin said. _Oh sure_ , I thought _, you don't accept hostile activity but you get people to knock your patients out to prevent your staff – who are MEANT to be doing it instead of the patient's family - from actually getting up off their arses_. "Now, if you'll calm down for one minute I can explain. We were successfully able to patch up her side, but we have reason to suspect that something went wrong. Her temperature keeps dropping rapidly, and we'll need a few investigations into why this is happening for her sake and anybody else who will need a Repercussion. Now, after recovery she may not be able to feel anything on that side, or, more likely, that side will be very sensitive. Her side's been wrapped up, so make sure she doesn't disrupt the healing by sitting up too frequently or for too long. The bruising on her ribcage is still prominent but we fixed the fractures on the ribs. We also found a few fractures in her left arm, so it's been wrapped up whilst it heals. Other than that, we've left nature to do its thing. When she wakes up, she may have a headache and she'll probably be very tired, so just let her rest. We've stopped the feed of the drug that was keeping her in a coma, so she'll be asleep for the next 7 hours minimum so you both should get some rest. After that, she'll just be asleep, so let her rest. Other than that, you just need to sign these forms then you can go." He handed me a set of form, which I scanned through before signing them. I handed them back to him, before standing up, gesturing for EOS to do the same, then left to go back to the flat. Once we entered, EOS started bounding around, asking if we could watch the meerkats.

"No, EOS, you should be sleeping." I said, putting down the sweets on the worktop then walking over to my room.

"John?" EOS asked just before I closed the door.

"Yeah?"

"Can… Can I stay with you tonight?"

"'Course you can," I said. This was probably quite scary for her – she comes down to the planet that I, admittedly, complained about for so long about the gravity, and she has to learn loads of things that her AI body isn't used to, and THEN have to cope with somebody who may as well be her sister go through recovery of being shot. We both get changed (me first getting changed in the bathroom, then me helping EOS get changed – something that was extremely awkward for me but I can't yell at her or blame her), then I teach her how to brush her teeth before I tuck her into one side of the bed and wait for her to shut off, then lay down myself, and the journey to sleep takes ages, but after a long period of time I'm out.


	16. Chapter 16 - John

Chapter 16 – John

Now here's a fact for you – nights are pains up the a-hole. I kept waking up every half-hour or so after two in the night. Do you ever get the feeling your brain's taking the piss? We originally went to sleep a little after one, meaning (according to Oliver-Colin) Kayo's coma-drug would have worn out by just before eight. And then, except probably being thirsty and hungry and as pissy as shit, she'd be asleep. Probably. I mean, yeah, her body may react differently than average to the drug, but either way I would just be happier waiting. And I noticed something else – this was under no way a place to be keeping EOS. I mean, yeah, she wasn't exactly a normal 6-year-old, but still. I would normally send her to stay with Penelope in her mansion, or maybe at the villa, but she barely knew them. And she still didn't seem too confident with anybody else. I couldn't do that to her. That would be stupid.

I looked over at the Roman bedside clock. 6.36 am. I now feel so sorry, if I didn't feel sorry before, for people with insomnia, the type where you could only sleep for an hour and a half a night or an hour or so. Once again, I had tested all the items the hospital had provided us and – who can guess from last time? – Nothing Worked. The words in all the books just blurred into one black blob. My drawing was as brilliant as ever – the quality of a drunk person's drawing. All my abilities to conjure daydreams went, and I didn't want to leave or stand up for EOS' sake. I was literally out of options. I just yawned, relaxing down into the silky cushions.

"If you're tired, just sleep!" I heard EOS say, as she turned around. Her plaited hair had mostly come out, just left in two almost heaps of gingery hair. And she still looked as pretty as ever, compared to me, who looks like some sort of unbrushed guinea pig.

"I'm trying," I said half-heartedly. I really did want to sleep, I did, I really did, but my mind did not allow me to.

"What's the time?" She asked, swinging her legs around and sitting herself up on the bed, looking at me over her shoulder.

"Like, twenty to seven," I said, doing the same as her. Looked like we were getting up. "How you settling in with this new body?"

"It's okay," she said, biting her lip, "But I'm worried that I won't be able to settle back down when I go back up to Thunderbird 5."

"EOS," I said, walking over to her and sitting down next to her, "You know I'll always be here to help you, no matter what form you're in, and if you prefer we can either always keep you in this form or the other, okay?"

"Thanks, John," EOS said with a slightly watery smile. "How long until that coma crap wears off Kayo?"

"Language, kiddo. And we got, like, one and a half hours or something along those lines."

"Language? English. And are you going to have your shower whilst I go breakfast?"

"I'll do breakfast, thanks, I won't burn it with Grandma."

"I didn't mean you'd burn it, I meant you'd drop it like last night," EOS just smirked, standing up, "Yeah, I was awake by that bit. How did you drop it when it was ON THE HOB? Actually, lemme guess: gravity?"

"Ha-ha," I said, standing up and grabbing my scruffy blue dressing gown – yes, I had one, ha-ha – and heading for the door. "Right, I'll go have a shower, but EOS," I turned around to look at her, "You are not to use the oven, okay?"

"Fiiiinnnneee," EOS moaned, shuffling through one of the drawers and picking out a pink dress Grandma had made, with sleeves and a V-neck; it was pleated and came down to her knees at the front but almost reached the ankle at the back. "See you in a bit,"

"Okay," I said, walking down into the little bathroom. And may I say – power showers are lovely. This must have been one of the new flats, because the power shower had adjustable temperatures and boosting speeds, optional oils and foams. Like, would you ever need that in your life? No, but maybe that made it a luxury. Also, they had top-quality shampoos and conditioners for men and women (I mean, no world, I do not appreciate stereotyping things or saying that somebody can only use a certain things because of their XX/XY chromosomes, but I had to agree with you this time): TresEmmé for the women; three sets – salon silk, deep moisture and regeneration. For men, there was Alpha (a new shampoo) that also had three sets; smooth, no-dandruff, and hair-growth. I went for the no-dandruff shampoo, then the smooth conditioner. And I never use conditioner! Like I said, not needed, but maybe that made it a luxury. After the shower, I even hair dried my hair and used the sea salt spray. Something I never did, but I may as well if it's free. Normally, this would take ages, but when I look at the clock – and this proves the quality! – I've only been in here for fifteen minutes. I pulled on my scruffy dressing gown over my boxers – despite the free gowns in the airing cupboard – and walk out. As I open the door, I can see EOS in the pink dress, her fringe plaited up and pinned back on her head. Sitting on the kitchen counter. Two plates of hot eggs, bacon and waffles next to her.

"EOS! I said don't use the oven!"

"I didn't!" EOS said innocently, playing with the silken material on her dress, "I used the microwave. You never said I couldn't use _the microwave_!"

"Jeez, you're turning into Kayo and Penny. There's already two too many of those attitudes in IR, let's not have another."

"How am I turning into Kayo and Penelope?"

"By finding tiny, _tiny_ little flaws in what we say and use it against us."

"Yeah, well I do what I like," EOS said, picking up one plate along with a set of cutlery and putting it down on the island in the centre of the kitchen area, then going back to get the other one. "Also, what. The hell. Are you wearing?"

"A dressing gown? You know, for an AI you're really not that smart if you don't know what one of these are." I slumped down on the stool. You can tell when an AI cooks something because it's always perfectly cooked. And you can tell when Grandma hasn't because it's not the equivalent of a fossil fuel. And you can tell when EOS does something because she will make a smiley face with the breakfast.

"Oooooh, sorry Grandpa," EOS play-sulked, hopping up on the other stool. Then she just picked up the fork and started prodding the egg white until it was whisked into a white mush around the yolk. Then started flicking the crackling on the bacon around her plate.

"Oh, you don't know how to eat, do you?" I suddenly realised. Then begins the process of teaching her every tiny little microscopic thing about eating, and being accused for apparently 'trying to burn out her processors', and then, even though she claimed she wasn't hungry, she managed to clear the plate _and_ a slice of bread, _and_ a glass of orange juice. By the time this was all over, and I had actually gotten changed, it was 7.40. Time to go down and wait for Kayo to wake up. I made sure EOS put the holo-projector in one of the free messenger bags, along with a bottle of lemonade and EOS' fruit chews (yes, still had the fruit chews) and some boiled sweets so that she wouldn't be bored out of her little robotic body. Then we go down to the hospital bed and, unfortunately for me, I manage to fall _up_ the stairs. Then slide _down_ the stairs. Twice. Now, whilst EOS found this as funny as, I claimed that anybody can fall _down_ the stairs, it's falling _up_ them that's the talent.

After the twenty-minute journey, we were finally walking down the mint corridor. I was thinking of how, if they existed, the walls of the hospital rooms would feel. Seeing deaths. Pain. Hurt. Births. Confessions. Would they still be as chirpy as they appeared? The same goes for the floor, the ceiling, the machines, the beds…

Everything.

I suddenly broke away from my thoughts when I felt EOS suddenly hold my hand and fall behind me slightly. Huh. Why has she suddenly gone so clingy? I was about to ask, but it's soon answered by my own eyes, and my protective streak comes back again.

That guy, the exact same guy as yesterday with the dark blazer, is sitting on one of the sterile chairs in the corridor. I gently pull an arm around EOS' shoulders as we walk past, taking down a mental note about this guy. Average-heighted. Pale blue eyes. Floppy blonde-brown hair. Built like an acrobat. Well-tailored clothes. A small gold badge on the lapel of the blazer. Wearing a waistcoat beneath it. Looked like a con-artist.

As we walk past, he keeps his eyes fixated of EOS once more, and EOS was looking over her shoulder at him as we walk away. I just pull her even closer to me and give him the evils. Like yesterday he gave me one brief look, then went back to reading his newspaper. The annoying bastard... As we walk down the corridor, we wait for room 2101. Kayo's room. And as we open the door, we see what the effects of the operation really were.

She was laying on the bed looking more pale and drained then I ever remember, with a thermal blanket and tin foil over her as well as a thick duvet. There was a lot of wires attached to her, ones even I didn't know of. The only ones I knew of was an IV line, a general H20 drip and oxygen mask – guarantee that'll come off when she wakes up – along with one that was helping to flush out the coma drug. The amount of machines that was around her was ridiculous. It made her look even smaller than she already was. You could tell she'd been fighting any infections and diseases – there were bags around her eyes from exhaustion, and she was obviously sweating. There was also a cast around one of her arms that wasn't there before - dodgy.

"John, that's not normal for a Repercussion, is it?" EOS whispered.

"No," I said abruptly, walking over to the chairs by the bed, gesturing for EOS to sit down in one of them as I slumped down in the other chair.

"Do you reckon the drug's off yet?" EOS said, crossing her legs on the chair, digging through the bag and whipping out her bunny toy Snowy.

"Mmm, probably,"

"Do you reckon she'll, you know… Do you reckon she'll pull through?"

Oh, now that's a question I was dreading for her to ask. A question I was dreading my mind from asking. "She has to," I reply, "She just has to." After that, silence prevailed the room once again. The only noise other than the piercing beeps of machines was an alert on the holo-projector after a few minutes. I just picked up the projector and checked the notification. It was a message from Virgil.

 ** _'Sup. Me, Parker and Penelope (and the Fuzzy) are coming around if that's okay. Is Kayo awake? Also, when you're not babysitting can you check The Hood's database? Scott had a weird run-in with a guy in a dark blazer but he thinks that he had the same badge as the Hood. See ya later shithead. Xx._**

Dark blazered guy? Badge? Was this just a theme at the moment with guys or was that guy sitting out in the corridor?

 ** _Cools. She's not awake yet because she's just coming out of the medical-coma drug from her Repercussion. And why are ya sending me kisses camp-arse?_** I replied, smirking under my breath. We made a joke that, if any of us would be fully gay, it'd be Virgil. Of course we weren't treating people differently if they were gay or bisexual;, because why should people be banned to find love if the love comes in people with the same genitalia, but then there's also a law in the siblings law that, if your siblings find something annoying, well, you continue as playful banter.

 ** _Oi, I'm telling Grandma you said that. And Repercussion? What Repercussion? Why didn't you tell us you bell-end? PS. We'll be there in five._** Of course he'd tell Grandma. He was definitely her favourite.

 ** _Well, she had to get that lump of metal called a bullet out of her somehow. Unfortunately there isn't a magical elf like in Torchie or whatever that story's called to get it out. And I'll see you in a bit_**. I put down the holo-projector on my lap, then looked at EOS who was leaning over my shoulder to read the texts, so much so she was holding onto the back of my chair so she didn't fall. She wasn't even bothering to cover it.

"Wow, you're subtle." I said, looking at her accusingly.

"Oh yeah, like you are," EOS hissed, falling back into the chair. "Is the fluffy coming again?"

"The fluffy?"

"The ickle puggy,"

"Oh, Sherbet. Yeah, he's coming, as well as Parker and Penelope and Virg," I said, digging in the bag and whipping out the boiled sweets, opening the packet and taking a handful before slipping them back in the bag. "Besides," I said, unwrapping one and slipping it in my mouth, "Apparently he just sleeps on the pillow whenever he comes here."

"Awwwwwwwwwwwwww!" EOS cooed, and I couldn't help roll my eyes at how she suddenly loved a sleeping mutt. "Also, I did this for you when you were naked and pouring water over yourself." I give her a second look, wondering what the hell she meant. "Shower, idiot." EOS said, pulling out a sheet of paper. I look down at the graphite lines. A rose, detailed and painted with watercolour. Like she said she'd draw.

"I said I wanted to do you something." She said, "And this time it's not betting on your bad luck! Proud?" She smirked, looking at the door. "Also, there's yapping outside. Probably Sherbet."

"Oh God," I whisper under my breath, tucking the picture back in the bag and mouthing "hanging that on the wall", before suddenly three people and a mutt entered, all of them being overly quiet – except a hushed curse from all of them when they saw what state Kayo was in after the operation. The only one who didn't swear was, of course, Sherbet, who immediately knew the drill and hopped up on the bottom of the bed, clambering over Kayo without a second thought. I was aware he was clambering over her bad side, and I knew when he went on the affected area because she suddenly started breathing harsher and the machines beeping quicker. But as soon as he was off her, she went back to normal. Sherbet just plonked himself on the pillow, and within seconds he was snoring. Oh. So my brothers weren't exaggerating.

"Hey," Virgil whispered, coming over to me and EOS, putting a hand on my shoulder.

"How's she doing?" Penny whispered, looking cautiously at her. This must be hard for her – they were practically best friends! It's why we let them work on missions together. When one put themselves at mild risk, like when the magnetic array device was stolen, one of them would watch their backs, in that case Kayo stood guard as part of her Covert Ops, and Penny and Parker did the work for the GDF. And not to mention, since we gave Kayo TBS, they have had a lot of sleepovers and met up a lot of times, even if Penny is a 'proper' lady and Kayo's more of a tomboy.

"She's fine," I lied, and Penny could tell it a mile off. She just gave me a dirty look, and I realised if I didn't tell the truth I'd be murdered brutally, "Well, okay, yeah, they think something went wrong. Her temperature keeps plummeting down – the machine recorded her lowest temperature was -23 degrees Celsius. Other than that, fractured arm, bruised ribs and back, burn on her thigh. That's all I know."

"Wow, you're the one for reassurance," Virgil said, giving EOS a quick nod as a 'hello', "Also," he suddenly quietened down. "How did she react about the trial?"

"She's putting a brave face on it." I said. I didn't want to mention her just sitting in the bathroom in front of everybody. Maybe just Virgil alone, though, because he was good for reassurance, whereas I was the square root of fuck all for help.

"Also, how the hell did you get that blister on your hand muppet?" Penny asked, pointing a finger at my hand.

"Nothing-"

"He was trying to cook pasta. Failed epically." EOS said, smirking as Virgil started laughing.

"I can see that happening. You gunna blame gravity on this one too?" Penny patronised. Annoying git.

"Ha-ha," I hissed, "Also, Virg, need to speak to you outside." I said, nodding to the door. We both walked outside silently, then waited until the door was closed before we started speaking.

"What have you done now?" Virgil asked.

"You know you said about that guy that Scott bumped into? Did you see him?"

"On his suit camera, yeah," He said blankly.

"Remember him well enough?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, let's go down this corridor. Tell me if one of these guys look familiar, m'kay?"

"O-K-A-Y?" Virgil said slowly, before walking down the corridor, me following slowly behind. Then I see the guy who I suspected was the person they was on about. Surely enough, he looks up from the newspaper as we both look out of the corner of our eyes. He just gives me the once over, then Virgil, but instead of staring Virgil down like he did with EOS, he just stared at me. And there was something odd about his eyes. They just weren't blue. I mean, yeah, they were obviously, but they weren't natural. And I knew – I had two brothers with blue eyes. Not the calm blue like Scott or the eager one like Alan. These were close to a pale grey, but it was still a hue of blue. We walked past and down to the end of the corridor, and eventually we both cut off eye contact, with me turning around and him going back to the newspaper.

"That's him," Virgil confirmed.

 _ **Hello again, I can now confirm that I am no longer sitting exams - for now, anyway as I started my last art exam at 2 am this morning - and I'll be posting chapters normally again. In reply to online reviews and comments from people who are reading but talked to me in person, this book is originally for my little cousin who absolutely adores Thunderbirds Are Go, so much so she will make me check upcoming episodes for TAG**_ _ **every day**_ _ **to see if a new episode is going to be coming on, and this whole book is based around the different ideas that she wanted for upcoming episodes but, of course, never happened, including the idea of EOS becoming 'human', and it's more of a birthday gift for her than anything. As for the ships, when I asked her if she wanted a shipping in this fanfiction, she said she wanted either Kalan or Jayo (explaining the reason why I have sort of introduce both brothers having a form of crush on her), so I have told her I need a decision soon because writing is becoming extremely hard now and if she can't decide, I will be asking you guys reading. Also, the whole idea of Kayo being thought she was adopted but not being fully adopted is going to play a part later on in the story. I do apologize for dragging it out for so long, but hopefully soon it'll make sense why I did. Thank you guys so much for the comments and reviews, they do mean the world to me, and I'll be posting more chapters soon to catch up with the lack of chapters.**_


	17. Chapter 17 - Scott

Chapter 17 – Scott

I padded down the hall to the kitchen to get some breakfast. Here's the rundown on the last few days or so – Pacific plate was feisty, rescues happening left, right and center, and with one missing person in IR, a person who could easily clamber up and get people out of mountains in two seconds flat, the rescues was made even harder. We just came back from a mission about six hours ago, and after Alan, Gordon and I came back, we all had a shower then just all slept in our beds. I had woken up first, as everybody would have suspected in this case. Grandma was also asleep because she had stayed up after worrying about us, and Brains was catching up on sleep too. I was the only one awake.

I just scraped around the cupboards, finding some frosted flakes at the back, then grabbing a bowl and pouring some into it. I was aware that I was in virtually no clothing – I just had my boxers and a vest top on – but I was still boiling. I just munched on the cereal automatically, not even bothering to get a drink. Everything just seemed unreal, like I was still dreaming. I made a quick glance to the clock as I finished off my breakfast. October 30th, 5.34. I was already dreading tomorrow – Halloween. There was a few main reasons: ransom calls, kids being stupid because they are now Batman or whatever and would avoid all harm (but could they? Nope!), and parties, which normally ended up somehow failing. All of these meant being dragged out and either lecturing kids or helping out with stupid rescues. It was just painful. Same with all major holidays. Yeah, we all normally had to wake up early on Christmas just so we could do the opening presents, roast turkey things together, before rescues rolled in. And birthdays. And Easter. And this was all the more reason to be sleeping.

But sleep would not come. What _did_ come is distracting thoughts. After washing up my plate, I just headed down to the pool, and started kicking the water gently around my feet. Normally Gordon would have been up, and most definitely Kayo. But Gordon was asleep and Kayo was… Yeah. Of course I was annoyed she went out on her own and without permission. That just wasn't International Rescue. International Rescue was saving people, not snooping around behind people's back. That's the GDF. Dad made the team so that we could help people, and in my eyes, punching them and knocking them out does not help anybody. And, honestly, I think some of her missions was pure luck. Maybe The Hood was right about her…

 _No, stop it_ , I hissed to myself. No, she wasn't like The Hood. Not one bit. It was just her missions was a step-up to anything that we ever did. And even if she didn't, she was a brilliant Head of Security; nothing, except public photos taken by stander-bys, nothing from our secret organisation ever escaped. And she was good on rescues too. Besides, I needed to get ready. I had a meeting with the GDF lieutenants and, of course, Colonel Casey and the other Colonels, who were just second-in-demand and deputy. The new ones (now Mr. Martin Anus - well, Martin Janus but Anus was a lot more accurate - was arrested for being, well, an anus and trying to destroy the GDF) was Colonel Delilah (nicknamed Lila) Petal Guard as deputy, and Colonel Joseph Charles Deyes as second-in-command. This was a regular meeting, but no doubt the whole shooting incident would come up.

I just waited for nothing for a further ten minutes, and when I see Gordon walking down the stairs, and I decided it was better to get ready instead of chat – I don't want to be poisoned by a bad sense of humour this early, thank you. But no matter which way I went I'd bump into him. Oh well, let's get it over and done with. I push myself up, then walk through the kitchen, meeting Gordon at the stairs at the same time I had intentions of going up them.

"Hey, Scott, you joining us today for the movies?" Gordon asked, just in his swimming trunks and a baggy grey shirt. Yeah, none of us wore much. Normally we wouldn't even have shirts on because the tropical weather was so hot. The only ones who never wore no shirts was Brains and John, and Kayo and Grandma, but then again, if they didn't have a shirt on then we would be quite creeped out.

"No, GDF meeting." I replied simply, walking around him before jogging up the stairs.

"Ok, we'll save some popcorn for you," Gordon called. Oh shoot, I don't want them on a sugar rush. It's like giving a generally bonkers cat catnip. Or for non-cat owners, havoc. And when I get to the top, I can hear Gordon call, "Go see your girlfriend!" I just turned around, gave him the middle finger, then went to go get changed and put some sea salt spray on my hair, because it looked as greasy as.

 _Three hours later_

A few hours later, I had gotten changed into my suit and was getting out of Thunderbird 1. I had parked in one of the GDF quad jets' parking bays, one of the three reserved for International Rescue. My intentions for today were simple – have the meeting, sign the forest-worth of paper, get out and get some chocolate and some Tango, probably the blood orange or mango Tango. Then, of course, head back to the villa. I was just locking up TB1 when I heard a voice behind me.

"You're early today," I looked behind me to see Colonel Lila Petal was behind me. I actually quite liked Lila – she was just absolutely lovely, so much so that when it came to choosing the next Colonel she was the absolute favorite, but then it came to being serious, she could bite like a wolf. Better yet, imagine a Rottweiler. She, like Kayo, was a midget, grounded at 5 inches taller than Kayo – five foot and 6 inches. She had blonde hair down to her shoulder blades and green-grey (well, more pale green with hundreds of grey flecks over the top), and she generally looked about 8 with her hair up, but thankfully for her appearance she had her hair down, which made her look about 16. Still looks young, but better than an 8 year old. She was more of a mate then a co-deputy of the company IR were tied with. She already looked exhausted, so I could guess a lot had already happened despite it being 9 in the morning. She used to be hella badass, but now she was married and had 2 kids (3 if you class her new Collie who was a sniffer dog, Skye, who she spoiled to near death).

"Thought early would be better than late," I said, triple-checking the lock was on before walking over to her.

"Good choice," Lila joked, "Shikoku's probably going to be late. Again," She muttered just loudly for me to hear, and I couldn't help but agree. Shikoku, who was a brilliant branch but always late for meetings, was originally named after one of the Japanese Islands, and was a secret Net that hid people who were particularly vulnerable to attacks. Whilst most could be hidden under the GDF Nets, people who were either linked to criminals or that may be seen as a threat by criminals were put on the Japanese-Island Nets (don't ask why they're named after Islands, I have no clue). There are four levels of secret Nets after the standard GDF Net – the least secret of the very secret Nets (is that a thing?) is Hokkaido, then Shikoku, then Kyushu, then the most-guarded was Honshu. Because we were under a secret organisation, we had to be on these nets – Grandma, because she didn't regularly operating was on the standard GDF net, my brothers and Brains and I was on Shikoku, and then Penny and Parker was on Kyushu, and Kayo, because she did arrest The Hood, and whoever he was working for would probably want revenge, was under Honshu. We all managed to cover all of the Nets (nearest dammit).

"So who else is early?" I asked as we walked down to the meeting room, which was a room with a massive mahogany table and room to fit about 50 people, but there was only 30 chairs. Massive holo-projector on one side, the other side two large doors where everybody would enter. No natural light. I hated it.

"We got everybody else. Also, I shouldn't tell you this, but we're going to have the meeting as normal, then Colonel Casey wants a word with you. 'Bout Kayo."

"Oh, great." I groaned.

"Are you exited?" Lila smirked

"Oh yes, ecstatic," I said dryly, rolling my eyes.

"I thought you would be, especially with Casey getting snappier recently" Lila said, swiping a card over a scanner before the door in front of us clicked, and she opened it. "Coffee?" She asked, "You may need it – this meeting's a boring one."

"Oh, go on then," I said, staring out the window. "What's it about this time?"

"Protocols. Politics. All that crap." Lila said, boiling the kettle then hopping up to sit on the staff room's counters.

"Ooh, goodie. Is it one where I can get away with just daydreaming?"

"Depends. Do you know about the referendum in the UK?"

"They're having a referendum? On what?" I asked.

"Northern Ireland wants to leave the UK, and just be Ireland altogether or something along those lines" She said, smirking, "You may want to listen in on this one, mate," She picked up the kettle after it boiled, then did me a black coffee for me and a white coffee for herself in two travel mugs, stirring them and putting the caps on them. Then she handed the white-and-brown cup to me, and cradled the penguin one in her elbow as she grabbed some papers and a series of InkJoy pens.

"Cheers," I said, sipping it. If there was one thing I was jealous about when it came to the GDF was their beautiful coffee.

"Come on, it's almost time. Let's go have our ears napped off," Lila said, leading me down winding corridors to the meeting room. It turned out a lot less people were there then I thought – only about a dozen, including Colonel Casey and – God, Gordon would wet himself laughing – Marion. And –He'd wet himself even more now – I had to sit next to her.

I slowly walked down to my seat, and as Marion turned around to look at me, she just smiled, and whilst I know she was being polite, I could only picture Gordon wetting himself laughing, which made me embarrassed.

"Hey," She said, watching me slump down.

"Hey," I just replied, trying to shove the awkwardness out of my mind. "Why are you here?" I asked, then a while later I clocked in it sounded rude, "Oh, not like that I meant like, um-"

"Normally I'm doing nuclear research, yeah," Marion saved, and I honestly was so grateful, "Nope, got a promotion into forensic science, and then into politics and law after getting degrees in one of their open universities. And I'm now head of nuclear studies. Jealous?" She said, nodding briefly at Lila as a 'hello' as she sat opposite me, then grinned at me smugly.

I decided to try and be nice, "Well-"

"He's _so_ jelly," Lila disrupted, obviously using her bat-hearing to listen in.

"'Course he is!" Marion joined in, "The only thing he managed to do with refined uranium was break the capsules and build up radiation and nearly radiate a city."

"Now, a) _you_ overloaded that practically dead elevator and b) you were lucky I caught you and got you out of that factory and got you a job here and c) Stop teaming up with her, Li," I said, which of course left the girls laughing.

"Well, a) if I had left sooner than the metals in the lift wouldn't have broken and – reminder – I couldn't because you were joyriding around the cave, b) there's something called rolling after you fall, and c) I reckon I could've swung a job anyways," Marion said, which left Lila giggling even more.

"Well-"

"You two sound like an old married couple," Lila said, and then the embarrassment came back, "Do you two always argue?"

"Pretty much," Marion said, smirking at me, then looked down to Colonel Casey who was obviously about to begin the meeting.

 _Two hours later_

After the two-hour meeting, I felt about as drained as I do after Alan or Gordon give the family a massive lecture about their rescues. I had managed to acquire a headache and a hate of the words 'referendum', 'Ireland', and 'UK' within this period of time, at least, when spoken by Colonel Casey. It had gotten so boring that we all became schoolkids and started passing notes to each other, and because so many people had started doing this, I was having 5 conversations at once with Marion, Lila and a few others whom I didn't know the names of. I never thought, when I came in, I'd be having debates about squirrels, types of wood, pints of beer, crude oil and kilts when I came in for a meeting about a referendum.

I was just about to leave when I was called over by Colonel Casey. So Lila was right. I just swept the last pieces of paperwork into a draw then walked over. After nearly everybody had left, it was only me, Colonel Casey and Lila, with Casey slumped over in her chair and Lila, who decided to stay, perched up on the table, swinging her legs. I just stood awkwardly.

"You can sit down, y'know. This isn't a court and we aren't going to trial you," Lila joked, swinging her leg behind a chair and kicking it out. I just sat down, avoiding eye-contact.

"I'm sure you know why I asked you to stay," Colonel Casey said, crossing her legs. Crossing her legs? She never did that! She would always tell Virgil and Kayo off for doing that! And what was up with the death tone?

"I've got a pretty good idea," I said bluntly.

"Good. Then I won't have to explain what happened,"

"No. I think I got the gist of it already,"

"Well, that's good." What was up with the cold shoulder? "I just wanted to make it clear that we do not want you to send your agents to shadow us. We know what we are doing, and if you need to know something, we will tell you. If we need one of your agents, we will request for it."

"Colonel, I didn't know she was in the warehouse-"

"Then you make sure she does not slip out from behind your back again. Show some authority."

"What do you mean by authority?"

"I mean you give her rules and, if she does not follow them, put corrections in place,"

"Why would I want to punish her for doing her job?"

"I did not insist you want to punish her. I'm insisting you change her jobs to something do with your rescue missions so you can do the job your father set in place."

"Dad knew she was not to be made a regular in missions. That's not her style."

"Then you get her to adapt to it,"

"Colonel," Lila suddenly spoke up, "Isn't that a bit harsh? She has been a great ally to the GDF."

"Name an example."

"She arrested The Hood."

"We would have done that, given we had more time. Name another one, and if you can't, stand down and let me get back to Scott."

"The day we did the sting operation to retrieve the stolen magnet array. She stopped Lady Penelope and Parker getting hurt, saving us a branch that _your_ best friend and partner in work Jeff Tracy made and saving us all sorts of fines. She was the only one able to stop Banino, even if it was brief. She was the only one that could confront Banino in the skies. She got the gold pressed Lithium back for us. Isn't that worth anything?" Lila was fuming by now, making dents in the mahogany table with her fingernails.

"She let Banino get away,"

"And I have so much confidence in that girl that we probably couldn't have stopped him either. If we had tried to stop him and he didn't escape, it'd be chance. And if he did escape like I suspect would have happened, we wouldn't have made any impression. She would have. And the fact that she had to step in for what should have been an entire crew of our soldiers and then didn't complain after that is even more of the reason why she is a good ally to us."

"Colonel Delilah Guard, this is not your place to question. Please stop questioning my place."

"I won't until you do what's right.

"Then please do your job as expected before I find another deputy."

"I think you will find I _am_ doing my job." Lila stood up in front of Colonel Casey, hands in fists and yelling at full volume. "You gave me this job because we were meant to imply our own thoughts to situations and stand to them. I believe that is what I'm doing. And, honestly, if you're going to be like this and not even recognize the people who are in your company and recognize them as people who have their own thoughts and just do everything by yourself, then I think you will find me leaving willingly along with most of the people employed here. I think it's you who needs to get their job straight."

"I've had enough of this. Both of you are to leave."

"Oh, we were going to leave anyway," Lila said, gesturing for me to get up and leave. Before I closed the door, it appeared Lila had one last card to play. "Good luck running this of your own selfish opinion!" I quickly slammed the door closed before anything else could be said.

"Well," Lila had to take a deep breath to keep herself calm. "See what I mean about her being pissy recently?"

"Yup," I said. What happened to make her so pissy?

"I reckon it's her time of the month. Just a lot more painful," Lila commented as if reading my mind. "Or maybe she's coming off time-of-the-months altogether!" Okay, that's more details then I ever wanted to her… "Wait, you know what I'm on about, don't you Scott?"

"Yes. And I wish I didn't."

"Oh. Sorry." Lila said, biting her lip. "But I'm just saying, it's an explanation to what's gotten into her. So anyway, what you doing now?"

"I was going to go into town, grab some sweets and a drink and-" I caught Lila gesturing at my suit. I could wear it in the GDF offices, although barely any of the GDF people knew my name they all recognized my face and knew they had to not ask or spread any information. In a public area, well. "I've got some spare clothes in One, don't worry," I said, "Anyway, grab some sweets and a drink because I've been fancying a Tango for about a week now, then check up on Kayo, then go back to Tracy Island and make sure my brothers aren't causing too much havoc," I knew it was safe to mention Tracy Island near her because, when we called the GDF when we knew Kayo was 'sorting out' The Hood (later arresting him) Lila was the first one to get her ars in gear and get a flyer over there.

"I place bets they are," Lila said, "Anyways, Colonel Casey didn't just want to make a scene, believe it or not. I can talk about it to you when we go into town if you want?" I just nodded, as it seemed a nice idea to not just walk in a shop alone and buy two quid's worth of things for no apparent reason then just walk out. "Okay. I'm going to my office to get changed into something else except this scratchy uniform and send off an email, so I'll see you in ten by Thunderbird One, okay?"

"Sure," I agreed, then, after walking down with Lila to her office, I jogged down to the base, getting changed into my baggy grey shirt and navy jeans once inside Thunderbird 1's cargo bay.

 _Three hours later_

"Oi, drop it." Within the first few seconds of me walking down into the kitchen, I was already setting orders. After Lila and I had gone into the Pound shop, with me buying a few can packs of Tango and some pear drops and watermelon chews and Lila buying half the Pet aisle for her Collie Skye, we sat down on a bench, sharing the watermelon chews, and Lila very calmly explained what Colonel Casey was meant to say before threatening Lila (I could tell Lila was upset by it because when I met her before going into town she had slightly red eyes and a few lines under her eyes from where she wiped away her minimal mascara away. God, I was tempted to punch Casey, and probably would have if she wasn't one of Dad's best mates) was that they did not mean to shoot Kayo, so it was an apology really, and that once she woke up after her Repercussion she was safe to come to Tracy Island as long as she was kept under medical facilities and she came back for check-ups. They also had to apologize for the data of her injuries being so thoroughly cocked up. Royal Oakley Hospital was found to be rubbish and was closing down in eight weeks. Which was fine for us, as long as Kayo woke up okay. I didn't end up visiting her because Penny was still pissy at how I reacted. So I came back to find Alan and Gordon 'making a cake', or in human terms, making a mess that could have been mistaken for the debris created after a bomb explosion.

Was it normal to prefer this over our regular food?

"Why? It's just food coloring!" Gordon smirked, standing on a chair.

"Yeah, but when Grandma comes back from her gardening thing she's going to think you've murdered somebody 'cause it looks like blood, and then I'll get murdered! Now drop it!"

"Okay," Gordon said, dropping the vial with red food coloring on the floor. The glass smashed with little noise, sending the red ink everywhere. "I DROPPED IT! Proud yet?" I just shook my head at him.

"Now shut up and clear it up along with the rest of the kitchen." I said, throwing them a mop and a broom.

"Why?" Alan asked, hanging upside down from the island counter.

"Cause you made it?" I sighed, shoving him back up.

"Didja see your girlfriend?" Gordon smirked, putting his elbows on the counter and chin in his hands.

"She is not my girlfriend."

"Yeah she is!" Gordon giggled.

"Oh, so you now have the ability to declare who gives people the chemical reactions in the brain," I said, not even sure if that how emotions work. Brains, Kayo and John were the psychological people in this family, not me. "To trigger what we call love?"

"Yass!"

"So people can't fall in love freely?"

"Well, err…" That tripped him up. Nailed it.

"Also, I've counted how many cans are left in these packs, so if either of you touch one without permission, you're dead."

"Can we both have one now?" Alan asked, finally sitting up.

"Fine. But this means I'm allowed to kill both of you if you touch another one," I said, cutting down my mental note of how many cans there were down my two. That left 12 – I originally had 16, but I had one, Lila had one and now Gordon and Alan were. Now that I've let Gordon and Alan have one, I have to let everybody else have one; Virgil and John, Grandma and Brains, Kayo and Penny (if she visits) along with Parker too (if he visits). I refuse to give one to the pug, though. That left me with… Oh. About five. Oh well.

It was at that time that Brains jogged down the stairs, followed by MAX. He just gave one look at the room, then at Alan and Gordon, then just sighed and looked at me, "We have a situation."


	18. Chapter 18- Virgil

Chapter 18 – Virgil

"That's him," I confirmed once we were out of hearing gauge. I could easily identify him – average heighted, quite muscular, slight tan and an oddly slim face. There wasn't anything else too distinctive about him, except his light blue-grey eyes. Greasy hair, dark blazer, and that badge. I couldn't remember for the life of me much about The Hood's badge – it never caught my attention until Scott whipped out a picture of him that the GDF had obtained and practically shoved my face into it, and even then I couldn't see it clearly – but even from my lack of knowledge they looked strikingly similar. Too similar for comfort.

"Great, so how did he go from Japan to England so quickly?" John asked. I had also debated this when we were walking past – he was last in Japan, why was he suddenly in an English hospital? Local travel wasn't flying from Japan directly. The only ones were evac planes, and they were only sending citizens to Australia and South Africa currently. Also, even if public transport could get him over here in time, the planes were slowed down due to high turbulence surrounding the UK and countries near the UK like France. How was he here so quickly and why? "Dunno," I answered blankly.

"Huh." John just answered, suddenly swerving around a corner to go down a white corridor with laminate floor with no warning whatsoever. I had to suddenly break then swerve on my heels and jog to catch up.

"Yeah, where are we going?" I asked, slowing to a walk.

"The flat."

"What's it called?" I asked, remembering that every flat had some form of name carved on a slab of wood that was stuck on the pristine white front doors. On the slabs of wood was the name and code, of course, but also carving of the outline of a cityscape with towers and Big Ben along the bottom, and 'Royal Oakley Hospital' in the top-left corner in tiny font.

"It's, like… Something…" John said, leaving me just to sigh with disappointment. He remembered all sorts of shit (and by shit I mean, like, what group all the elements are in in the Periodic Table and their electrons and their bloody magnetic charge, etc.) but never anything that, y'know, anybody ever wanted to know. "It was something like…" John continued, "Something like… I wanna say Eclipse?"

"Well, we'll see, eh?" I was trying not to laugh at the fact he sounded drunk when he debating things like that.

It turned out the flat was quite a pretty little flat. I mean, not enough for MAX to fit in and move around and whatnot, but cute anyway. John said he was going to pack up the majority of his and EOS' things, ready to go once Kayo was up, meaning we could DITCH THIS SKANK OF A HOSPITAL. Oh, did I not mention? Scott called us and told us about cocking up her data along with about 50 other people minimum. I mean, no, not annoyed in the slightest… heh…

Whilst John was currently packing up EOS' things, I was designated the task of clearing up the dining area/kitchen/living room. More commonly known as, I had to now clean up their mess as I was in the flat. Which I was willing to do as EOS did most of it this morning apparently, which meant drying the odd plate before a casual swerve to some of the Malteasers. I managed to leave three Malteasers, though. And in that time I dried the plates and cleaned the sofas and I was about to do the TV. But maybe some Malteasers would help…

Scratch there being three Malteasers left. Here's my excuse – unfortunately they all fell down an underground tunnel then dissolved in some terrible acid after being beaten up by the tunnel's rocks. What? Oh come on, we all do it! I was just turning on the TV, half expecting and half dreading to see something dodgy like porn. But instead…

"John?" I called, squinting at the TV.

"Yeah?" I heard a voice come from the room beside me.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?"

"What?"

"WHY THE HELL ARE YOU RECORDING BLOODY MEERKATS?!" I just yelled, not even sure why the grumpy stone out of me and my brothers, the one where supposing you were told a joke and you were there like " _OH MY GOD THIS IS FUNNY_ ", he'd be the one to explain every little point about why it isn't funny and you hate him for ruining the joke, our stone brother, who had 11 episodes of meerkats. Meerkats? What the hell?

"Language, kiddo. How many episodes are there?" John asked, sounding relaxed about it, compared to me, who's flipping my shit.

"Eleven!"

"Oh, can you do, me a favour and burn them on to a disc please?"

"WHAT IS UP WITH THE MEERKATS?!"

"Oh. EOS and Kayo like them."

"Good excuse," I muttered, shoving a blank disc in the player and burning on the episodes.

"Oi," John said, walking out with a small black suitcase, probably EOS'. "What's up with that attitude?"

"You're going soft, you've been going soft since EOS has been here," I said. He was getting softer and everybody in International Rescue noticed. He wasn't as – what word would be appropriate? – stone as he used to be. He was definitely opening up.

"Am not," John claimed, putting the suitcase down by the sofa.

"You are so,"

"Am not!"

"You are. Full stop." I said, then continued talking before he could interrupt. "Now if you've packed your crap, let's go see how Penny and EOS are doing. We kindly ditched them, remember?"

"Oh yeah, that might be a good idea, but first, I need to have a word with you."

"What have you done now? Don't tell me there's another AI you made."

"Virgil," John hissed, leaning against the door. "This is serious mate,"

"I'm not your mate I'm your brother. What's up?"

"Kayo's not technically adopted."

"What?" I wasn't expecting that. No, she's adopted, and I know because I went with Dad when he got the form for adoption as a single father (Mother had passed away by this point), and he only needed one form because he had care as a guardian for her for a good amount of years, and Colonel Casey said she was much happier here then where she was before. No, she was adopted. This was just one of his crappy pranks.

"EOS checked the forms earlier, the official adoption form isn't there, it's missing," John explained, showing me a screenshot with an error on it, saying that she wasn't adopted due to lack of information. "EOS thinks it may have got lost with Dad when he… Y'know…" He was using a tone which meant even he couldn't be so stone to turn around and say it was a prank.

It was real. She wasn't adopted…

"Oh," I said, debating how to feel, but I decided that I had to stay positive, as, well, I was always the one who _had_ to stay positive, "Well, it doesn't change anything, does it? She's still one of us, and she's still one of our best friends who will always help us and she treats us like brothers and why should we treat her differently just because of some ink printed onto a dead tree mashed up into a wad of fibres? She's been one of us for ages, it doesn't change anything," I said, which maybe it did because it meant she could be separated, because Dad was Godparent for Penelope and Brains as he knew their parents. As far as I knew, he found Kayo by mistake. Or at least, I assume, as when she came to the island she looked very unhealthy and thin, very uncared for. She looked wild. I still claim she _was_ wild, as in, raised-in-a-forest wild (well, maybe not, but that kind of wild).

"That's what I was hoping you'd say. I wanted to say it to you first. Also, could you tell the others? And Kayo?" John asked, and I just rolled my eyes. Here's how things work with us – one of the brothers tell me something, then I have to very gently tell the other three, along with the rest of IR. The only time I got a break was when Kayo told us about her DNA-link with The Hood. I nodded, giving John an _you-own-me_ look, as it seeped in.

"Cheers," John said, twisting the handle of the door. We both filed out the door, one after another, and then all I knew was something had shoved into me at the same that I was out the door, and it was only John standing next to me that stopped me from falling flat on my side. I just looked over as I stood back up, and part of me is shocked, but part of me isn't.

That guy with the dark blazer.

"Oh, I'm sorry." He said. He was still holding that newspaper, and the other hand offering to help me up.

"Quick question," John said, obviously annoyed, "Is there a reason you keep bumping into my-"

"It's fine, really," I said, then shot John the evils, "Isn't it John?" He just grunted in response as the guy jogged down the corridor.

"What the Hell is wrong with you?" I turned to John as he bent down to lock the door.

"That asshead can't just keep shoving into people," John muttered, "Especially not you and Scott."

"John, you nearly gave away the fact that we're in International Rescue," I hissed under my breath, as to make sure that no CCTV could pick up my voice. He just did one of his grunts, then went down to Kayo's room, with me walking behind him.

We eventually got there, and by this time I felt like my lungs were rubbish at being lungs. When we entered, I was half-disappointed to see Kayo still asleep, machines bleeping around her, but my interest soon turned to EOS and Lady Penelope. Sherbet had decided to wake from His Majesty's slumber, and curl up on EOS' lap, with EOS fussing him and Penelope talking to her in a hushed whisper, leaning on the back of EOS' chair slightly. They didn't seem too bad together. As soon as EOS worked out we were in, she just smiled at us, looking overly-pleased of the snoring pug. Was it natural for pugs to fall asleep once in a hospital? Was it natural for pugs to be in hospitals full stop? As soon as Penny turned around, she just seemed completely relaxed. She was completely relaxed, and John was worrying Penny wouldn't be okay with EOS, or vice versa.

"Ah, I see they haven't completely ditched us," Penny said, giving us a half-dirty look.

"We were just packing up a few bits in the flat, ready for when this one wakes up." John gestured at Kayo, who looked a bit less drained, or rather, a tiny bit more alive as she looked utterly dead earlier. She looked dead but she's breathing – is that a thing?

"Oh. Anyway, I'm going to have to leave soon. The PM has a charity ball for Japan again." Penny said, picking up her bag and gently putting the pug, which may as well be her child, in the bag. Then, after saying goodbye to EOS, she headed for the door, whispered a goodbye to each of us, and then looked back at Kayo one last time before leaving.

"So what do you think of Penelope?" John asked, sitting down next to EOS.

"She's nice," EOS said, pausing, "And she has a cute pug."

"Oh, so you're more interested in the pug? So people can get defined as nice if they have… a pug?" John said softly. No doubt. He was going soft.

"Well, no, but to does help first impressions." EOS said, "I mean, come on, you're going to like somebody with a pug better than somebody with a gun or knife or something,"

"Dark way to look at it," John said, and I couldn't help but think that what EOS just said sounded a lot like what Kayo would say. "Anyway," John continued, "Do you want to come help me pack up the last of your bits, then we can go to the park, how about that?" EOS just nodded, grinning, then looked at me. I knew what it meant. He wanted me to stay here so Kayo wasn't alone. I just nodded, and waited for both of them to go before walking over, pulling a plastic chair over to Kayo's bed and sitting down. I stared at the machines, seeing how much I knew about their purposes. Well, there was one wire helping to flush out the coma drug from her operation. It had become more common to, instead of having a regular dose of anaesthetic, to have one dose of a coma drug (a modified one), then flush it out. It proved there was less anaesthetic deaths due to this, but Gordon's, John's and Kayo's word somewhat consisted of, _'there's less anaesthetic deaths because there's more coma deaths'_. What else was I expecting from them? Anyway, the fluid to flush out the coma drug, a general drip, and then just a few painkiller wires. Oxygen mask, soon to become an oxygen mask _er_ , (maskers worked like an oxygen mask but was a wire with a nozzle instead. Didn't know anything else. Well, that proved interesting. Anything else? I just looked around, and my eyes fell on a sketchpad. A few sketches on it? Don't mind if I do. But when I open it, I can see some small writing in the left corner of the sketchpad. I can't recognise the first set, but the second one, the neater one, is definitely Kayo's handwriting. As I read it, I can guess the other handwriting was EOS – they were betting on John dropping a glass. Typical. I wonder who had won. I just turned to the next page and, as almost promised, nothing was on this page. I just grabbed a pencil from the case of the sketchpad, then began to draw something I needed to practice – a rose. A lot of people know how to draw roses, and they're good at it, compared to me, who's good at drawing things like eyes, the complex flecks and all, but I can't draw a series of petals. I knew how do to do them, I just couldn't. It's why I wanted the practice, I started like I had learnt, start from the middle and work out. The very centre was only a tiny flick, really, then from there you get one petal coiling around the middle petals. Half-way down you go into two separate petals. Half of the way down from there, it goes into three petals, and on the occasion, went into four petals. I had gotten down to three petals when I heard the machines beeping and hissing louder. And louder. Why the Hell was that happening? I put the sketchpad down, and started checking the systems. Why was this happening? What the Hell was happening?

But when I looked down, I could see Kayo waking up, squinting against the light.

/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/

Hello! Sorry that there have not been too many extra chapters, I have tried to be fitting chapters in between hospital visits and my Art and everything else and, let's put it as, it's currently chaos. I will try to write and post some more chapters once I write them.

As for the ships mentioned a few chapters ago, I have officially given up with my little cousin's debates between ships, so if you guys want to see any kinds of ship between any characters, please just leave a review and I will try and fit it in, or if you guys just want no ships at all, I will also try and do that. Thank you so much for reading!


	19. Chapter 19 - Scott

Chapter 19 – Scott

 _Overlapped with Chapter 18 (directly after Ch 17)_

I headed up to the lounge for a review of the upcoming situation. I was partially grateful to get away from Alan and Gordon and their nuclear cake-bomb created in the kitchen (if the mess wasn't a situation in itself). But despite my relief, being in a uniform all day once again did not seem appealing either.

"Where's the affected area," I asked, walking down the steps to the main round table in the lounge where Brains was clicking away on something. It had been odd not having John do it, even if it was for, what, a few odd days?

"Ecuador and the surrounding coasts, another earthquake hit a few minutes ago. Constructive plate boundary formed. The magnitude was 6.4. The GDF has requested we take care of trapped workers in an industrial factories dealing with crude oils. Three trapped workers, one with a suspected broken leg." Brains babbled, with MAX rolling in from the hangar with his rather odd chirps/beeps, using his long spidery-legs to pull himself over the stairs before driving himself to stand next to Brains, scanning through the random lines of pseudo code.

"What equipment will I need?" I asked, trying to read the coding backwards. Safe to say, it failed quite epically.

"Grappling cable, safety harnesses, first aid kits, medical kits, just usual equipment." Brains said. The use of the word 'normal' made me wonder what a regular family would be like with these things. These things would be new, odd, or maybe foreign even. Then there's me and my brothers and sister, and for us these things were as common as pens and pencils.

"Okay," I said, heading over to the lamps. Brains was okay at these reports, but John was better at this. But then again, I didn't want Kayo in that hospital there alone.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Would you like to know one of my pet peeves? PEOPLE YELLING WHEN YOU'RE TRYING TO RESCUE THEIR FRIENDS OR FAMILY. I mean, yes love, I get that you're distressed or worried or panicking, but gimme a break! I can't do my job with you wailing! And I respect that you're worried, but please, if you're going to hyperventilate or die of a heart attack, please do it quietly and don't make a mess when you do so. Even better, do it in front of a medical person – what are they called? Paramedics, that's the one, or first aiders -, aka, don't yell or die from your yelling in front of me. Anyway, I got the people out, the person with the broken leg out first (it turned out it was not broken but fractured twice in the thigh and three times in the calf – would you prefer one clean break or five fractures all over your leg?) followed by the other two, before extinguishing a fire that had occurred in a quadrant that would lead to the main hall stacked with, oh, a few thousand oil drums that could cause an explosion that could destroy this city of rubble from the earthquakes. I mean, no, not hazardous in the slightest…

Anyway, where was the GDF? They said they'd back me up on this, and yet I didn't see so much as a GDF car in this whole area! Oh well, there's time to kill, and I don't particularly want to go back to the Island any time soon. At least, I want to give time for Grandma to get back and make Gordon and Alan clear up _all_ their mess before I return. I just began to fly around the area, looking for a silver-blue square-shaped jet. Finally, my eyes fall on a cluster of about 5 jets 2,000 aeronautical miles west of the location I was working at. Odd. Hardly seems that they were securing the area in one small cluster. And who was that down there? I could see a tall person with their hair up in a bun and standing up straight – Colonel Casey – and a small blonde girl with her hair in a braid that fell to her shoulder blades holding a white-and-chestnut Border collie – Colonel Lila Guard and her spoilt-rotten sniffer dog Skye – and load of other people. Well, if I can get over to Lila I might be able to understand what's going on. I just land Thunderbird 1 like usual, then get changed into the same baggy shirt and jeans before hopping out and jog over. Surely enough, Lila was the first to notice, and started jogging over, but then Skye took it as an invitation for a race, and the collie began to run headlong towards me, half-dragging Lila as she ran.

"Oi, Skye, calm down!" I said, squatting down to fuss the panting collie. This was an extremely stupid dog, to the stage she's scared of teddy bears and she'll begin digging pointlessly at her bed and growling at pictures on the TV that contained so much as one black pixel on them, and she will lick a spider, yes, _lick_ a massive house-spider, but when it came to sniffing out different drugs she was quite smart (duh), and she was gentle with Lila's six-year-old son Chris and four-year-old girl Evie. The only other thing she was smart at was working out who would fuss her, or rather, who would fuss her after her whole ears-down, tail-wagging, paw-up and soppy-eyed act. This was effectively everybody in IR, so whenever she saw one of us, even from a great distance, she would either run over or start pulling on the lead, dragging Lila or Lila's husband along with her. In that way, she was a clever dog. But not much else.

"She's energetic today," Lila muttered, brushing the fallen strands of hair from her fringe over her head, "Hi, again."

"What did you expect from a collie?" I said, rubbing the collie's stomach as she was now laying on her back, paws up in the air. She was a little slut for a fuss. She had even been used at volunteering to advertise the GDF's pet branch. With this cute thing, over 300 people signed up and, well, let's put it as Skye was in her element with all the fusses from little kids, making their parents sign up for monthly payments. She proved no danger to the little kids – she wouldn't hurt a fly. If anything, she'd be afraid of the fly. It wasn't exactly rattling a bucket in front of people's faces, but still. I wasn't sure how I felt about it, but Lila wanted to stop it because she thought it was forcing people into a decision through bribery. This is how she adopted Skye, even though she'd been debating for some time about getting a dog (wasn't exactly a King Charles Spaniel like she wanted, but it'd do – oh yes, they did also get a King Charles a few weeks ago called Ruby after its coat colour, as I learnt earlier today), and this story about Skye was also how the kids got their first puppy, and her husband Alfie got an alarm-clock-dog in the morning.

"I was kind of hoping to have, I dunno, a sniffer dog? Like the paperwork said?" Lila said as I stood up.

"Okay, touché. So what the Hell's going on here?"

"Murder."

"You what now?"

"A murder. Do you need me to spell it out for you?" Lila smirked, gesturing for the collie to get off her back.

"No, I got an A in English, thanks, I think I know how to spell simple 6-letter words," I followed Lila as she walked towards a city river, which had police tape around the boarders. "So do you know anything about the murder?"

"Well, somebody got killed, duh. But as far as I can tell it's more of a statement than some argument that got outta hand or the usual. I mean, apparently the victim died originally from asphyxiation whilst they were out cold, but then on their back had a cut in the shape of an irregular hexagon, or rather the triangle with the corners cut off that you use on your holo-projectors for things like explosions or alarm beacons. And then in the middle, a small line above a taller line, like an exclamation mark. But the bleeding from those cuts obviously stopped because his clothes didn't have any blood stains, so it looks like they put the shirt on after they cut him. And somebody else said the person went missing about a month ago." She paused, before whispering, leaning towards me a bit. "It's been weird, this case. And not just like that. Colonel Casey isn't really giving two shits about this. Normally she's checking all previous murders, seeing if there's some sort of link, and effectively losing her head in condolences. But this time she's just… Not really giving one like I said. She just said to do simple trace tests." Lila was biting her lip by this time, getting uncomfortable. I even knew why. She hated murder, or at least, being at the scene of a murder, the blood/gore mainly, so there was probably blood somewhere for her to be that uncomfortable and pale, that or she saw the dead person. If there was blood, it was gone now, that or it was out of sight – except the jets and tape and huddles of people, it looked normal. Besides, her main job as deputy Colonel was to check for drug traces after thefts and crimes that didn't involve blood, like vandalism, but more commonly she was doing and leading the psychology part, slowly finding out how murderers killed their victim, or why somebody wanted to or did do something. No blood, no gore.

After all, as quoted by her, its fine hearing something, even in graphic detail, but it doesn't bite you if you don't see it for yourself.

"Huh," I decided to quickly change the subject to help her, like she always does for us, "So who are all these guys? I've hardly ever seen these guys since you changed around the roles. I mean, I know Casey and the other Colonel who works with you – his name's Deyes isn't it? – but I dunno anybody else here." Which is a lie, I know two people, Ariana and Nick, who sometimes help with rescues if we need backup, a few of the Lieutenants, but the more I can distract Li's mind by listing people she worked with, the better.

"Um, the six people over there in regular uniform are helping with collecting data –they're Ari, Sophia, Donna, Michael, Nick and Darren – then over there," She pointed to a bunch of people in the Colonel/Lieutenant uniform and three in leather jackets, "Are the lieutenants, the three in black jackets are the triplet lieutenants, Lieutenants Marcus, Jim and Daniel, then the one who looks like she's fighting with the blueprints is Lieutenant Carter – yes, Carter's her first name, don't ask about the name _or_ the amount of makeup she 'requires to wear' – then the others who are getting a drink, left from right, are Lieutenants Arden, Ken and Jane." I just nodded. The numbers didn't add up, there should be three more, but I didn't ask – they were probably at base or something. Lila just continued, "Then, yes, we have Colonel Deyes then the woman in charge Casey." Lila finished, stopping to let Skye 'go to the loo', and the fluff-ball of a sniffer dog decided to stare at me as she… Yeah… I was trying to be mature about it, but Li had other ideas.

"Hey, Scotty, I think she wants you to look at her. Or maybe she wants you to do the same as her. Do you think you could curl one out to make her feel better? You can do it in your jeans if you _really_ want. Don't worry, I won't look," I just hated how smug she was. And the fact she called me Scotty. I hate nicknames. My name's five letters, one syllable, it doesn't need to be shortened, thank you! But I knew how to deal with it. She's the opposite of me when it comes to names.

"Where is your husband when I need him to control you, Delilah Petal-Yasmin Guard?" Now, where I hated nicknames, she hated her full name. Now, if she was in her 'badass' mood like she was 8 years ago and I wasn't a good friend of hers like I am now – I didn't know her then, so I'm relying on descriptions – she would have murdered me. Cut our Yasmin (her second middle name- didn't know that was a thing until I met her) and you'd get two black eyes and a few kicks in the rib. That's how much she hated it – and I thought Kayo got hostile after calling names! Actually, no, Kayo just gets hostile when somebody's on the wrong side of the law, or when she meets somebody like this alleged Ned Tedford, who I have yet to meet. Now, though, she could take it as playful banter. Well, as long as she could make a comeback, or, like now, she started it. She was about to retort, but then a voice came behind us.

"What's she done now?"

I turned around to see Alfie Guard, Li's husband, standing behind us. He was one of the lieutenants – meaning we were missing two – but I could guess he wasn't on call. How? He was carrying his little daughter, holding her on his hip. If I remembered correctly, this was Evie (well, Evangeline, but like her Mum she already hated her full name). Evie looked just like her Mum, except from inheriting her Dad's blue-green eyes and cheekbones and a few of his habits from childhood, like sticking out his tongue when he was her age. Evie had a short mane of hair, all different shades of blonde, and she obviously inherited Lila's midget gene. Her older brother, Chris, was the opposite – he was the exact spitting image of his Dad Alfie, with the same ginger-brown hair slightly quiffed, the same chiselled facial characteristics, the blue eyes, and the same muscular and tall build. But Chris was nowhere to be seen, probably because he was at preschool or play group or whatever it is.

"Why isn't Chris with you?" Lila was immediately asking questions, coming up to hug him and Evie. "And what's this one doing out of her class?" She tickled Evie's stomach, making her giggle drop her dinosaur toy. I just quickly picked it up, then gave it to Alfie, who pretended to make the dinosaur walk over to Evie in mid-air, before Evie just grabbed the dinosaur's arm with a vice-like grip.

"Well, a) Chris wanted to go around his mate's Shawn's house so I checked with his Mum and she said yes, we need to pick him up at six, and leave in an hour if we want to get back to England in time, and this one's done for the day. Slept all the way here, but woke up so she could see Mummy, didn't we sweetie?" Alfie asked, jogging her up and down slightly. She just nodded, too engrossed with playing with her dinosaur toy, probably making up some magical world in that little world of hers. I had always begun to wonder about kid's minds, about how powerful their imagination is. I wondered if maybe kid's minds are more powerful than adults' minds, but as they learn 'the truth', 'the reality', maybe it's lost. Yeah, don't ask how I came to think about that… A few shots of tequila… now that's a mistake… especially when you start chatting up a wall too…

"Are you going to say hello to Scott?" Li asked to Evie, nodding to me.

"Hiya," I said gently, waving at the kid. She just waved at me, before hiding her face in her Dad's shirt, covering her face with her dinosaur toy. Bless, she got shy and embarrassed at everything. The opposite to her brother Chris, who was outgoing about everything. Never afraid to be wrong. How can there be so much contrast?

"Aww," Li cooed, stroking her daughters back. "She's just a bit shy," She looked at me almost apologetically.

"Don't worry, I'm used to kids being shy. Virgil was and – believe it or not – Gordon was for a few years, before he earned his bad sense of humour and confidence,"

"I really can't see that happening. With Gordon, anyway," Lila said, looking at a confused Alfie – he didn't know my brothers, or even our surname, which may be a good thing – before looking back at me.

"I know. Everybody I've told doesn't believe me. Alan was naturally outgoing like Chris, and John, well…" I looked for the right word, "He's just been a geek since birth."

"Now I can see _that_ happening." Lila joked, picking up Evie who appeared to want to have a cuddle with her Mum.

"Anyway," Alfie interrupted, "What's going on here."

"A," Lila said, then mouthed _murder_.

"A mother? What's _a mother_ done now? _D-R-U-G-S_?" Alfie hissed in Lila's ear, making Lila look utterly hopeless.

"Scott," Lila said, putting little Evie down and guiding her to walk towards me, "Can you go take Evie to buy an ice cream? The van should be behind the off-license shop over there. I can give you the money if you need," Evie said, pulling out her polka-dot purse out of her pocket and nodding to a small brick shop a short way down the road. Lila's general memory of places was quite impressive.

"No, its fine," I grabbed the loose one-pound coins out of one of my pockets, counting five of them and shoving the , then holding my hand out foe Evie. She just looked cautiously at Lila, and after seeing her mother nod, walked up and held my hand, the other arm hugging the dinosaur to her chest. I just followed Lila's directions, finding myself leaning down slightly to make sure Evie could walk properly. We managed to walk past the zebra crossing, with Evie making leaps to land on only the white lines, before she pulled at my jeans, gesturing she wanted to be carried, so I just picked her up and propped her on my hip like Alfie had done. She seemed too focused on her dinosaur toy to notice the roaring sirens of the police cars racing past. I wondered what she'd be like when she'd be older. Only time would tell, really. From her illiterate murmurs to the teddy, I could guess its name was Barney. Okay, she's quite cute. I'll admit that. She. Was. Adorable.

When we got to the ice cream van, I could already see a small kid, eight at most, with short black hair and a red top, buying an ice lolly. And a few metres away, a group of teenage boys, sniggering at the boy. Now, I may have had a young kid on me, a kid who I was trusted to look after by one of my best friends, but I also wouldn't tolerate any form of bullying. Just when I was tensing up, they just turned to the van and all brought Dr. Whippy's. Oh. Never mind them. I even had adrenaline running through me. I brought Evie up to the board of different ice creams up for sale, expecting her to point to the ice cream she wanted, but instead, she just said, "Can I have a pink sprinkley please?" Once again, not expecting that.

"'Course you can," I said, checking the price. £1.50. Ah, may as well get myself one, then, if I have £5 – it's rare to have an ice cream without having to buy another four for my brothers, occasionally five if Kayo was there. I scanned the board briefly, deciding on a vanilla and nut (it's not even nut anymore, its tiny broken pieces of cone) Cornetto, before going up to pay for both of them. I unwrapped Evie's lolly and gave it to her, then unwrapped my ice cream and put the wrappers in the recycling bin before taking a bite into the creamy ice cream. My God, the van ice-creams were the best ones. But it was only as I was walking away with Evie, after entertaining her with her dinosaur toy again, that I noticed the huddle of teenagers again. Five, to be precise, with the ice creams gone, replaced by spray cans. And spraying graffiti on a black-painted brick wall. I'm about to just blank it out of my mind, before I realise what they're spraying looks oddly familiar. And I wonder where from, before it hits me.

A triangle. Corners missing, so technically a weird hexagon. Like for alarm beacons.

Exclamation mark in the centre.

Wasn't that what Lila said was on the back of the murder victim?

But they weren't done spraying yet. Next to the sign, there was bold yellow font, some of the spray paint dribbling down from the bottom of the letters, and when the teenagers finally scurried away, I was able to read it:

 _ **This is your last and final warning.**_

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Hello! I just wanted to thank everybody for the reviews, they genuinely do mean a lot, and I want to thank every single person who is reading and reviewing. As for the ships, I have decided to go with Scott and Kayo (is there a shorter version for that ship? Scayo? Kott?), thank you to Sharene M and a few other people for helping me out with that , but I wanted to know if you guys would like any other ships along with that, like with Penelope or Brains or any of the Tracy brothers, well, excluding Scott of course, or if you would like this just to be based around Kayo and Scott, or maybe if you'd like to see any smaller details in the plot? Or any more additional characters? Please let me know, and I'll be posting the next chapter soon!


	20. Chapter 20 - Kayo

Chapter 20 – Kayo

 _Directly after Chapters 18 and 19_

To say I had a migraine was an understatement, to the point that if I ever thought this migraine was painful before I take back all of those comments. And I wonder how I fell asleep with that much of a migraine. But, oddly enough, my side isn't hurting as much. How odd. But my hand is bloody agony. Why is my hand hurting? Better question, how did I cut my hand? Well, I assume I cut it – it's quite painful, the only other thing it could be is a break or fracture, but I can already tell there's no cast over my hand, so it must be a cut. But how did those cuts get there? Cuts don't appear by themselves, do they? No, of course not. But I can for some reason remember picking up some sharp piece of metal and holding it. As in, holding it so hard I may as well be squeezing it for stress relief or some shit. Why can I remember that?

And why the Hell do I have my eyes closed and – OKAY, WHAT THE HELL?! I'm pretty sure I just heard somebody next to me – talk about jump scares. Oh, I bet it's one of those bloody bitch-faced nurses. Well, screw this. And, please, can you not make those machines bleep any louder? No? Then go get a life. Okay, that's harsh – go help somebody else. I'm fine. I'm quite happy here. And I'm flipping boiling. Oh, very clever, bitch-face, make me melt why not? Very clever. Very funny.

I just opened my eyes, half-expecting so see a Bitch-Face (they are now their very own species) and half-anticipating that I would have to punch them. But I don't quite see a nurse-Bitch-Face. Better yet, I don't see, well, much. All I see is bright light. And I mean _bright_. Like on those adverts for guide dogs, when you hear the story about how people wake up and all they can see is that bright light. Yeah, imagine that. But brighter. A lot brighter. And then I can hear the person walking again. And I am in the annoyed mood in which, if Bitch-Face pushes anything in the slightest, I will take one of the wires that is currently plugged into me and strangle them. Here's my rating scale for the Bitch-Face species - having them be normal, accepted. Being a jackass, you're pushing it. Being a slut and a, well, Bitch-Face, I will beat you up until you can't breathe any more. But then the light goes – thank God – and I can see I'm still in the hospital room, surprise, surprise, and there isn't a bitch-face in the room with me. It's Virgil. _Oh_. Wasn't expecting that. Why the Hell was it so bright? I began to skid myself up, and I could see why I was boiling. Tin foil and a thermal blanket and a blanket that was as thick as Brains when it came to sarcasm. And the heating on the room was on full. But when I had almost sat up, I suddenly got very dizzy, too dizzy for my liking, and I felt somebody pulling me back. Lemme guess who it is.

"Hey, come on, sitting up isn't a smart idea when you've had a Repercussion, is it?" Virgil said, pulling me back down by my shoulder. Repercussion? Surely not. I just closed my eyes for a few minutes to try and get rid of my migraine. But it would explain why my side didn't hurt anymore, and how I fell asleep.

"Here, this better?" He said, virtually pulling me back down. He had pushed the top half of the hospital bed up a bit higher, so I was almost sitting up. I just nodded, because now I finally felt like I could, y'know, _breathe_. As Virgil poured out a cup of water with a stupid ice:water ratio (let's say, ice to water, 49:1), I just slid the sheet of tin foil out of the blanket sandwich quite quietly, considering this material cracks at the slightest force of kinetic energy. I had slid the sheet half out before Virgil slapped my hand – and the bad hand, too. And whilst I know he barely touched me and he didn't know, it really bloody hurt. Thankfully, it was my right hand, the one I didn't primarily use. Biting my lip, I shook it slightly. Nope, still agony.

"Sorry," Virgil looked slightly guilty, threading a black straw into the iceberg of a drink and handing it to me.

"It's not your fault, you barely touched me. It's just sensitive as fuck," I said, picking up the glass with my left hand. I downed it all in one go, and it felt lovely to have a cold drink when I was this boiling. I finally felt like I was cooling down. I take back the ice:water ratio comment. This. Is. Lovely.

"Language, Kayo," Virgil said, looking at one of the screens, then grabbing the glass and dumping the ice in the bin. He then filled the cup with water, threaded the straw back in, then gave it back to me, before pulling the duvet back over me. Does he not understand how bloody boiling it is in here?! As soon as he took his hand off the duvet and stopped arranging it, I shoved it over to the end of the bed in one clean sweep.

"Oi, come on, keep it on. You're virtually freezing." 

"That's bull," I retorted. How could I be freezing when I'm sweating my tits off?

"Seriously," Virgil pulled the blanket back up to my chest, and when I tried to push it away again, he just held my wrist and pushed it back down, "Kayo, your temperature keeps going down past, like, zero degrees. We literally had to put machines in to make sure your blood doesn't solidify because you're that cold. How are you not cold?"

"You're joking, right? I'm sweating my tits off here." I said, putting the water on the bedside table and laying down on my side, the side I usually laid on before I got shot, but now since it didn't hurt – well, it hurt a tiny bit, actually, but like I said, _tiny_ amount – I could lay on it again. And I honestly doubted my ability to sit up any longer – I was going so dizzy I could see little stars in my eyes. I hated that, especially when you wake up like that.

"Huh. Because your current temperature is – wait, lemme look – fifteen degrees. Twenty two degrees lower than average. Now come on, lay down and behave so we won't have to take an ice cube back to Tracy Island, there's not enough room in the freezer, thanks," he said, pulling the stupid sandwich of blankets up to my neck. This made no sense – how can I be that cold when I'm so hot I may as well be sold as a pre-heated barbeque? If this is a prank he's dead. I rolled my eyes, staring at the winding wires attached to my arm.

"And now you've worn yourself out, idiot." Virgil smirked. No, I have not worn myself out, these stupid drugs are being arses. I was about to say that thought out loud – whilst I had the excuse of the drugs from the Repercussion making me not give two shits I can get away with it – but then I heard the door open. No, I fucking refuse to see any Bitch-Faces. But it turns out it was just a stressed and bothered John, closely followed by EOS, who looked as stress-free as ever, the total opposite to John.

"Virg- oh, she's awake. Hi, Kayo." John said all in one go. "Guys, check this out," John pulled out a portable holo-projector from one of his pockets on his trousers, sitting down on the end of the bed, scrolling through a bunch of windows he already had opened up. EOS, however, didn't seemed stressed in the slightest. She walked over like nothing had happened, and as I sat up, she came and sat next to me. I ignored the dirty look I got from Virgil for sitting up. I refuse to believe he could stop me.

"Hey," EOS whispered, "How you feelin'?"

"Fine," I lied. I felt like shit.

"You bullshitting liar," EOS whispered back.

"I'm not lying!" I lied again.

"Bull," EOS said, leaning back on the pillow slightly. "If you hate nurses and doctors, you're going to hate this place. So you're not going to be 'fine'. Also, you've got loads of crap going through your systems, that'll generally makes you feel anything _but_ fine."

"You're too clever for your own good." I hissed, glaring at John as he sorted through his overly-organised windows on the projector. Yeah, John was clever, so you'd expect him to make a clever AI. But you wouldn't expect the AI to be like this.

"Ha-ha," EOS smirked, "The advantages of being an AI,"

"Here, I got it," John said, opening up the local news. A report on the weather was just finishing off when we turned on. Then it went into a reporting station, with 'BREAKING NEWS' taking up the bottom right corner. The reporter, a round man with a stupid fake tan and nearest dammit white hair, began a report:

' _Good morning, I'm Stephen Georges and the time is now 11.46 am. Now onto some breaking news. There have been reports of a murder in Bahía de Caráquez, located in the province of Manabí, in Ecuador. A passer-by had found a dead body located in a city river and reported it to the GDF. Details are scarce, but it sounds the victim was killed by asphyxiation. We also understand the murdered person had a series of cuts on their back and was missing for almost a month. CCTV cameras were cut out by an earthquake so we cannot see any video on how the killing took place. The person still needs to be identified, but we have reason to believe the person killed was Karley Kyles. She was aged seventeen, and went missing three and a half weeks ago after walking home from her part-time job at her local store. We will have more details soon._ '

"What do you guys think?" John finally said, muting the holo-projector and putting it on the white-painted bedside table.

"Probably usual. Somebody hated someone else, said person killed the hated person, said person will end up in prison," Virgil said simply, picking up his sketchpad and doodling again.

"No," I said simply, "If 'Said Person' wanted to kill somebody, he'd do it quickly. Like a gun or knife. Something with discrete evidence. Not asphyxiation, where you can get evidence just by looking at a dead person. Well, not unless 'Said Person' is the most psychopathic psychopath. And doing it by a river, well, that's just drawing attention. Chances were 'Said Person' killed the person - Karley, wasn't it? - and then took the person and dumped them in the river." 

"I'm not asking how you know that stuff." Virgil gave me a dirty look, then went back to his graphite lines on his sketchpad.

"What? It's common sense!" I said, fumbling with a bit of EOS' hair, playing with it between my fingers. How could fibre optics be so soft?

"O-K," John said, staring at the floor. He seemed to want to diverge from the subject, "Anyway, Virgil isn't drawing a bit girly?"

"Oh, yes, it is girly," Virgil was staring at him icily. "Because the practice of ordering your brain to pick up a small piece of wood with a lead of graphite in it and ordering your hand to put the graphite lead of a pencil on paper and to move it in a uniformed line is strictly reserved for those with XY chromosomes, that or only for people who wish to live with a female's reproduction system or believe that they are a female but in a male's body." Here's the thing about Virgil – he's the most sensitive of his brothers, to the stage he will cry at adverts (particularly John Lewis ones, followed by any one that has one sad feature) but Virgil was as hench as fuck. And whenever he gave you an icy look, well… Let's put it as, if you didn't know him, you'd be sure you'd get murdered. A little ironic with the current situation. But, annoying thing – all of the Tracy's were naturally tall – I mean, Alan and Gordon was expected to grow to what John's height was now, and Virgil was still growing a few centimetres a year – and they were all naturally muscular, as in, they grow a tiny bit stronger and it's obviously defined, maybe over defined. Then there's me. I was naturally a midget, and my lucky growth spurt over Alan wasn't going to last much longer. And whilst I was quite strong – not as strong as Virgil, but strong enough to knock somebody out cold first-punch or first-kick – I just looked like some stick insect. And out of all of us, Virgil was the most muscular, and most menacing-looking if you didn't know him. Even if you did know him, he could look menacing. This was one of the times, and it was usually more self-defence (if that made sense) than him getting angry.

John seemed content on bombing his statement, "Actually, it is-"

"John, let's just drop it, hey?" I said. I was not in the mood for these two fighting today. Not with this migraine. I would just end up punching both of them.

"No, but-"

"John. Just. _Drop it_." I hissed.

"Fine." He said, staring at the door. I looked over at Virgil, half expecting him to be upset, but instead he just looked at me, slightly confused. I began to wonder what the Hell I'd done to him to be so confused, but then he nodded at EOS and it made sense. To him, she came down and suddenly we were getting on easily. And it's not usual for me to get on with children, or children-AIs. Normally I hate kids – the Tracy's have made jokes that if I have a kid they're going to have to take it away from me for the first 18 years of its life because I'd probably hate it (which, if things somehow came to me having a kid, of course I'd take care of him/her, but it was still fun to joke about for a bit of banter) – but with my reputation for hating kids, it must seem weird I was willingly giving EOS a cuddle. He probably thought John bribed me into it. I just gave him a half-smile, then sank down into the bed a bit further. I was going slightly dizzy again, but not as bad as first time.

"Anyway, you gunna go to sleep so we can get you out of this 'hospital'?" Virgil said, half sighing.

"Why'd you say 'hospital' weirdly?" I asked.

"In a nutshell? This has been a rip-off of a hospital and has been cocking up your data since you came here and they cocked up your Repercussion so now you're temperature regularly sits at, like, 10 degrees Celsius. So we're taking you back to Tracy Island and sorting you out there and clearing up their mess." EOS said blankly, ripping of a tiny piece of the corner of the tin foil and twisting it into a little tube.

" _EOS_ ," John hissed.

"I TOLD YOU THEY WERE BITCH-FACES JOHN, I TOLD YOU!" I was practically celebrating at the fact I was right about _something_ over John. Now that was a rare occasion. "And why do I have to be asleep?"

"Because we have to keep you warm." Virgil said, threading the pencil through an elastic grip on the back of the sketchpad.

"But I'm _boiling!_ "

"Kayo, you're really not,"

"Am so,"

"Kayo," EOS interrupted, looking up at me, "You're as cold as Satan's soul, right? Please just accept it, or at _least_ go along with it, so we don't have to keep hearing their voices yelling. Good plan?"

"Yeah, good point," I shrugged. "But seriously, can I just be awake? Please?"

"Fine," Virgil said, grabbing something out of a Bag for Life. "But you're going to wanna change into something instead of your hospital robe thing," I just stared down.

"Ugh," I moaned, "Why the heck am I in a dress?"

"Ha-ha, you're in a dress," EOS smirked.

"Oh, you hypocrite," I nodded at her pink pleated dress.

"Ooh, good save," 

"Okay," Virgil interrupted, throwing a long-sleeved plain white shirt and some navy jeans at me, "Go get changed. Do it quickly, okay?"

"Yup," I gestured for EOS to sit up, then slipped out of the beds, ripping off the wires (yeah, they were loud, but hey-ho) and went into the little bathroom to get changed. Considering I've been laying down for God knows how long, I got changed fairly quickly. And then I made the fatal mistake of looking in the mirror. I looked like a mess. I was a lot paler than usual, had bags under my eyes… I almost looked dead. But, of course, I wasn't dead. I'm still thinking. I'm still breathing. Still keeping blood circulating around my body. Still looking at myself in the mirror and thinking about how dead I look. The only thing that looked slightly like me was my hair; still black and long. No knots – my hair rarely got knots when I was asleep or doing the square root of fuck all (like now when I was in hospital) so it was still straight and knot-free. But it was loose, not in its normal ponytail. My hair was just lying flat against my shoulders and back in a side fringe. And when it was down, it annoyed me. I decided to tie it up before it began to annoy me, whilst I had the chance. After tying it up and washing my face, I began to look a bit more like myself. And I felt a bit better after standing up. Then, deciding to go back outside, I tossed the hospital thingy in the bin, then unlocked the door and went back outside. But I don't think I was expecting what I saw.

EOS was laying on the floor, practically half curled up in a little ball, with John and Virgil pinning her down or something.

Dodgy.

I decided to lean against the doorframe, arms crossed, waiting to see how long it took for them to notice. It didn't take long for EOS to notice, but I reckon if she didn't, Virgil and John wouldn't ever notice.

"Kayo, help me! Our brothers ate being twats!" EOS screeched.

"You two, get off her before you both get black eyes." I said, walking over. "And what the Hell are you doing?" 

"Tickling her," Virgil said, "Brains made her ticklish virtually everywhere."

"Then leave her alone," I said, "Because it looks as dodgy as."

"Does it?" John said.

" _Yes!_ "

"Oh," John stood up, and as soon as he did EOS leapt up and hid behind me, "And why did you put my hair up?"

"'Cause it's bloody annoying."

"But you look pretty with your hair down,"

"I don't give two shits, it's annoying," I said, rolling my eyes, "Can we go now?"

"Somebody's eager," Virgil nodded at me.

"I'm trying to avoid bitch-faces," I walked over to the door, putting my hand on the handle and looking over my shoulder, "Can we go now?"

"We need to go to the flat first, but yeah," John said, walking over after picking up the holo-projector.

"And where's 'The Flat'?"

"A twenty-minute walk from here. And put this on," John grabbed my wrist and put a weird wristband on it. "And now we can finally use the elevators." 

"Umm… Virgil, what is John on today?" I opened the door, virtually shoved John out the door.

"The wristband means you can come with us, walk around and stuff without getting yelled at by the 'Bitch-Faces'. John's been dying to use the elevator, saves him stacking it up the stairs," Virgil said, walking out the door, shortly followed by EOS and then me.

"Awh, there goes my entertainment," EOS sulked as John wrote down something on a piece of paper and stuck it on the door.

"Yeah, she's been thoroughly enjoying me falling down the stairs" John moaned, walking down the corridor.

"But he didn't just fall _down_ stairs, he also fell _up_ the stairs then slid _down_ the stairs," EOS trotted in front of us, then walked backwards to look John in the eye when she was saying it.

"You weren't much better, EOS," John retorted.

"Well, yeah, but I just _learnt_ how to walk, better yet, I'm _learning_ how to walk. You've had at least a _decade_ of learning how to walk."

"Yeah, yeah, let's just get to the flat and pack the last bits up."

/~~/~~/~~/~~/~~/~~/~~/~~/~~/~~/~~/~~/

Turns out the only reason we went to the flat was for John and Virgil to smuggle the hospital's shampoos, conditioners, blankets, sweets and drinks. They had brought 3 Nike hiking backpacks with them, one of which included shampoos and conditioners (4 sets of the men shampoo and conditioner and 1 set of the women shampoo and conditioner), one bag with two neatly folded-up duvets, folded so thin that nothing would be suspected – folded in a way only Virgil and Grandma ever mastered – and a bag stuffed with bottles of Coco Cola, Dr Pepper and Tango and several packets of various sweets, which the boys all seem to know but I only knew two – pear drops and fruit chews. And whilst the boys ran around stuffing crap in bags, EOS and I just watched the meerkat programmes that were recorded. We managed to watch three episodes, which after fast-forwarding through breaks equalled to about fifty minutes. Well, an hour, if you classed me and EOS making bets on what would happen to each of the meerkats. Admittedly, I had almost fell asleep two times because of the drugs still in my systems, only to be jolted back up by EOS crying when two groups (is that what a bunch of meerkats are called?) of meerkats started fighting, and when a mother died after giving birth and fighting to save her pups.

We were just finishing up the last episode of the meerkats, and Virgil and John were almost done stuffing the last blanket into a Nike bag – they had been debating about taking it, with John claiming EOS would like it for when she came back down, and Virgil saying that it's pointless and they'd never get it out discreetly; John somehow won – when we heard the door click as if somebody was trying to open it. It was only when a burst of knocking came from the door that we realised it was locked. John, after shoving the Nike bags under the dining table, went and opened the door, only to be greeted by a relatively chubby (I would say round, but that doesn't describe it, as mean as it sounds) man with a bunch of paperwork in his hands.

"Hello, do you have Tanusha Kyrano with you?" He said.

"Yeah, she's in here," John replied, opening the door to let him in. Ugh, great, I have to entertain some strange man that smells like a dustbin.

"Ah," he said, looking at me, "Nice to finally see you awake," Was that a dig? I will punch him if it is. "So, who else is here?" 

"That's my brother Virgil," He nodded at Virgil, then looked at EOS cautiously, trying to think up a lie.

"Ah, and who's this?" Chubby-man said, making EOS roll her eyes behind his back and sink down into the sofa.

We all just exchanged panicked looks. We didn't think anybody would ask that! I just began to think of names for her, then fell on one. "Elouise," I said, before I realised the name I said. It didn't suit her too much. Hopefully we could think up a nickname for her out of Elouise. I could feel EOS shove her elbow into my side. She didn't like it. Shit.

"Ah, pretty name for a pretty little girl. I'm guessing the surname is Tracy, hey? Elouise Tracy?" He said, trying to be nice, but all he was getting was death looks from the corner of the sofa.

"Thank you, so what did you need Oliver?" John asked. Oliver, eh? Hmm. I don't like Oliver.

"Just needed some forms to be signed for you to be able to take Tanusha back," he said. God, if he didn't stop calling me that he'd get a black eye.

"Okay," John said, getting a pen before he was handed a bunch of papers. Then he just scribbled in several places in the paper as Oliver sat down in the old armchair.

"So how do you feel?" He stared at me with his ditchwater eyes. God, I never got such an urge to punch someone.

"Like somebody would presumably feel after a Repercussion?" I said blankly, making him laugh. "Was that funny?" I hissed at him.

"It's not an answer I've heard before from any of my clients," He said.

"Well, did any of your 'clients' have a Repercussion? It would explain why you haven't heard it." I replied bluntly. I could not be bothered to deal with anybody's crap today. As Oliver was about to reply, John dumped a bunch of papers on Oliver's lap.

"Done," John interrupted, "So can we leave this afternoon?"

"I guess so," Oliver said, straightening up and heading for the door. Before he left, he turned back around to look at us, "Come and see me if you need anything, won't you?" Then he left.

"Elouise?" EOS looked at me, " _Seriously?!_ "

"I panicked," I said, looking over at Virgil and John, who were doubling over in stitches from laughing. "It was the first and probably only name with E, O _and_ S in it,"

"I'm sure there's others!" EOS cried, hugging both her white bunny toy and a pillow.

"Like?"

"Umm…" EOS stammered, "Maybe… I dunno…"

"There we go," I said, "Besides, it's not like they're gunna remember it and use it against you!" 

"Actually," John interrupted us, "I kinda had to put her name down as well as Virgil's, and I may have put her name down? And it might be down on the records?"

"Awh, _John!_ " EOS hissed, pulling the pillow up to her face.

"Well, then, you can use a nickname. Like Ella or Ellie?" I shrugged, standing up.

"Hmm, I like Ellie better," EOS said, hopping up as well, one hand holding her bunny and the other putting the pillow back down.

"There we go. In public, you're just gunna have to be called Ellie. Is that cool?"

"I don't get a choice, do I?" EOS smirked, "So can we go now?"

"Yeah can we?" I turned to John, who was sorting through a bag.

"Um-" He started, but then EOS just hopped on his back in one clean go, hugging to him by his neck.

"I'm not letting go until we can go!"

"EOS, get off! Okay, okay, we can go!"

"Yay!" EOS hooped down, then trotted back over to me.

"Come on then," Virgil said, swinging one of the hiking bags on to his shoulders, and kicking another bag to John. I grabbed the last one and put it on my back, careful to avoid my bad hand and cast.

"Oi, Kayo, drop that," John snapped as he swung the bag with the duvets on to his back.

"It's not heavy," I said, opening the door and walking out into the hallway, closely followed by EOS. After a few minutes the boys came out, and after locking the door, we all headed down to the main reception to finally leave, with John and EOS – or Ellie – signing the paperwork for transference to Tracy Island's medical facilities and me and Virgil just standing around. But when I was waiting I noticed something odd. There was a guy, leaning against a doorframe, glaring at all of us. Virgil must have caught me looking at him, because he came up behind me, whispering in my ear,

"We've seen that guy a lot recently. He seems to be always following us."

/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/

Hello! Sorry for the long time between the chapters, there have been some things happening recently that has kept me busy so I will try and catch up a little bit later. And I also want to apologise for the relatively boring chapter, this was just a quick one to catch up on everything so that I can get straight into the plot next chapter. I will try to post that next chapter either tonight, tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. As for the plot, the interesting bit is about to come up and will do so in the next few chapters. Thank you so much for reading, and please comment telling me if you want to see any small details in the upcoming chapters!


	21. Chapter 21 - Scott

Chapter 21 – Scott

 _Overlapped with Chapter 20 (Directly after Chapter 18 and 19)_

I had to read the spray-paint graffiti text one, twice, and by the third time it had sunk in. This final warning was linked to the murder. Rather, the murder was the final warning. But final warning for what exactly? But that wasn't my business to know, that was the GDF's business. Speaking of which, I needed to let somebody know about this, even if it was just Li. I hurried back down the street, one hand holding the Cornetto - which I did not feel like finishing – and the other hand holding Evie, who clearly didn't see because she was so engrossed in eating her ice lolly/popsicle (depends if Ecuador uses British or American English more frequently). By the time I managed to make it back to where Lila and Alfie was, I was half-panting and Evie had almost finished her ice lolly/popsicle. I jogged over to where Lila was giving Skye, her Collie, a drink.

"Geez, Scott, didn't need to hurry back," Lila looked up from the brown-and-white collie as I handed her daughter Evie back to her, "What's up?"

"Can you come look at something?" I was practically panting now. Which was stupid, as I only did a bit of light jogging.

"Sure," Lila said, "Is it an I-can-bring-Eves-with-me look-at-something?" I shook my head, because even though the chances of Evie understanding was minimal, I didn't want to risk her being upset, and I didn't want to risk a yelling from Lila. Lila just nodded, handing me Skye's lead as she went over to Alfie to hand over Evie. I won't lie, Skye was a show-stopper when it came to looks. Soft long fur, almost perfectly equal patches of brown, two blue eyes, the natural postures and habits of a typical sheepdog. She looked smart, but in reality she was the daftest thing known to mankind. As expected, she was already on her back, wagging her long fluffy tail and expecting a fuss. I can't deny her when she is doing that.

"You're a sucker for a fuss, aren't you Sheepy?" I rubbed her belly, still balancing the ice cream in my hand, looking over to where Lila was handing over a fast-asleep Evie to Alfie, having a few words with him as well. And as I look down, I can see Skye twisting herself round to start licking her hand with her slobbery tongue.

"Urgh, Fluff!" I groaned in disgust, wiping my hand against my jeans.

"She never normally licks," Lila came up from behind me, making me jump. "First time I've seen her lick somebody."

"Hmm," I said, looking at Lila's peculiar 'child'. "Anyway, we all ready? Also, do you wanna finish this off?" I handed her the ice cream. I wasn't going to eat it, why should it be wasted?

"It's unusual of you to deny an ice cream, thanks. Do you wanna walk Skye?" Lila asked as she picked up the ice cream, and I nodded when she suggested walking Skye. Why not? "Careful," Lila warned, "She will pull," Which seemed like total and utter bull, she was walking perfectly beside me, occasionally arcing her head to look at a passer-by, but otherwise fine. But then a car went by, and the whole story changed. She suddenly began to pull at the lead, dragging me along, and I'm sure if I wasn't holding her back then she'd be in headlong sprint. And as the car finally whizzed by, the chinking of her claws on the pavement filled my ears as she was full-on sprinting, only held back by Lila, who had grabbed a bit of the lead and was holding her back for me. "Told ya," Lila smirked, pulling Skye back up as she had laid down in her attempts to 'catch' the Vauxhall car. "It's herding instinct," Lila explained, "She's done that since we got her."

"Clever shit," I hissed under my breath, giving the mutt the evils as she walked back beside my heels as if nothing happened.

"Anyway, what did you need me to see?" Lila asked. Oh. I temporarily forgot.

"I think I found something to do with the murder," I explained, nodding at the graffiti sentence, which I could just make out from where I was.

"Since when has that been there?" Lila squinted at the writing, and a few seconds later I saw realisation seep into her face. She must have read it, and seen the symbol.

"Not long. I was getting an ice cream with Evie and when I was about to go back I saw these teenagers spraying-"

"What, you _saw_ who did this?" Lila suddenly turned very serious, like she always does when something that concerns her work does, but this time she turned serious quicker than expected. And when she was like this, getting aggressive quickly, she was not to me challenged with.

"Well, no, not quite. I just saw five teenagers."

"Huh. Maybe a shop's CCTV picked them up." 

"CCTV's out isn't it?" I reminded her, "The earthquake knocked them out."

"Oh shit, yeah," Lila sighed, and we walked up in silence up to the graffiti. She stared at the sign for a few moments, then finally spoke again, "Brutal way to make a statement. Why so brutal?"

"I'm less interested in the brutality and more in why they killed somebody for a statement." I looked down at Skye, slightly confused. Why did she have her head up so high?

"Skye," Lila said, and I thought Skye was in trouble for doing some dog-thing that I was foreign to, but apparently not, "Skye, sniff." Lila pointed at the graffiti, keeping her hand at such a distance that she wasn't touching it, but Skye still understood. She lifted her nose up, started sniffing for a bit, flicking her tail slightly. Then she sat down. Lila immediately knew what this meant.

"The spray paint's got a drug in it. Probably ethanol, the stuff that makes things like vodka and wine a depressant, or rather, what makes them alcohol. It would explain why it smells of alcohol. And people won't be concerned if they pass by – it's an alley, alleys are where all the pissed people congregate. And it makes it hard to scrub off."

"Huh," I said, "So what does it mean, last warning?"

"Dunno," Lila said, talking Skye's lead and turning around, "But I say we tell the other lieutenants. Race ya down," She nodded, and as soon as Skye heard 'race' she started pulling on the lead. I just nodded, then sprinted down the road. I was quickly overtaken by Skye, but not quite Lila. Whilst Lila was fast, I was a bit faster, but even faster than me was Skye. By the time we got back down to the other lieutenants, Lila got there before me, only because of Skye. "Okay," Lila said, "I'll sort everything out from here, but you may have to come into the GDF tomorrow and do a report. I'd suggest you clear out before Colonel Casey's on ya," She nodded at Thunderbird 1, before taking Skye over to her husband, "See you tomorrow, and tell me how Kayo's doing when you next see her, okay?" I nodded before heading back to the ship. It was obvious she'd be concerned about Kayo – the only reason she knew us was because of Kayo. Long story short – Kayo and Li were nearly always put together when Kayo and the GDF worked together, and over the previous year or so they were put together in joint missions to try and catch the Hood, and as they were both stubborn arses they became really good friends, and one day Penny was helping the GDF and so Penny also became friends with Lila, and then she met us at different times at different and became friends with us, but if she had one good friend in IR it'd be Kayo without a doubt. And according to Colonel Casey, both of the girls had saved each other's lives at least once. And they obviously trusted each other – Lila had even made Kayo a Godparent to Evie, Lila's precious little daughter. The news that Kayo was shot would obviously be a bombshell to her, and the fact that it was done by the GDF would be even worse on her. I got changed into my suit in silence, then launched, setting a route back home. I didn't put One on top speed though. I didn't want the risk of cleaning up Alan and Gordon's mess.

/~~/~~/~~/~~/~~/~~/~~/~~/~~/~~/~~/~~/

"Gordon Cooper Tracy, clean up that mess _now_!" I was greeted back to the villa by Grandma's shouting coming from the kitchen. Huh, so I hadn't completely avoided the cleaning. But over the last hour-fly home, my thoughts were on the recent murder. One sad thing people don't think of when somebody is murdered – there's at least two people left without a daughter or son; chances are there's a person left without a partner; people left without their friends; a person without their sibling; maybe even children without a mother or father. The effects got worse when there was a mass murdering, because as well as these facts, all these people knew that the murderer didn't even care about the person, not in the slightest, even if 'care' meant 'hate' in this case. They only wanted to make a statement of some sort. They didn't care about these people suffering. It was stupid that people could do that.

I climbed out of One to see Brains and MAX working on Thunderbird S, with MAX leaning over the side of the platform that Kayo's jet was parked on, staring down at me. Oh well, I may as well kill time. I jogged up, not even bothering to change out of my suit before going up. When I got up, I found Brains leaning over one of the wings, one panel from the ship taken off for presumably repairs. And then there was MAX, who was just going around in a circle. A very tight circle.

"I think he might have a problem with one of his systems," Brains said, looking briefly at me before going back to his work.

" _Riiiiiiiiight_." I gave one glance to the spidery robot, then walked over to Brains. "So what you doing?"

"Just making sure it's okay for when Kayo's better,"

"Brains," I sighed, "a) she's still going to be grounded for eight weeks minimum, b) I'd preferably prefer if she doesn't go anywhere soon, c) she's grounded from any missions, remember?"

"W-well, a) I'd prefer not to have to do repairs last minute and b) she can still do missions in this ship!" Brains slumped down from the ship, almost falling flat on his back. I grabbed his arm and pulled him upright before he could fall over. "Also," he continued, "She's coming back this afternoon. Virgil sent me a text saying they'd be over once they fill in the p-paperwork and snuck out some of the things the hospital offered, they'd b-bring her back."

I won't lie, I was quite glad she was coming back. I was missing her. I really was. It was stupid I missed her just because I liked having a pain up the arse. Or maybe it was something else. "That's good," I said, taking a brief look at MAX. He had stopped circling. Well, kinda. He had now grappled himself to the ceiling, and was swinging himself around in the air. "How's she doing?"

"From the sounds of it, walking around fine but being a stubborn cow." 

"Tell me something I don't know," I smirked, "So Grandma's back, I hear,"

"And I t-think she caused an earthquake from how much yelling was going on up there," Brains hissed, "All I know is, she's making both of them clean up. We're in the clear," I sighed with relief at Brains' news. So I could have come straight home and rested. Speaking of which, did they know about the murder? It was soon answered:

"Did you hear about the murder? It was near the factory and-"

"A girl was found dead by a river, originally died of asphyxiation and has cuts on her back?" I stared dully at him.

"H-how did you know that?"

"I'm psychic." I turned away, "It's safe to go in the kitchen, right?"

"Yeah." Brains nodded, before calling for MAX to get down. I jogged out of the hangar and down to the kitchen only to see both Alan and Gordon cleaning up, stone-faced. And Grandma was there, hands on her hips, yelling at the boys. As soon as she saw me, though, she softened up a bit, though.

"Hello Scott," She said, giving the boys one last look, before walking over. "Did the mission go well?"

"Yup," I nodded, walking over and grabbing a can of Tango, but on a second thought grabbed another one for Grandma. "Did you hear about the murder?"

"Yeah," Grandma said simply, accepting the can and pouring the drink into a glass. "Also, do you know what time Kayo's back?" She asked. Oh. So they all knew before me.

"Dunno," I shrugged, taking a sip from the can.

"Ah, in which case, could you sort out the medical room please? I would have gotten Alan and Gordon to do so but they had other ideas," She hissed directly under her breath, shooting both the boys the evils.

"It's cool, I can do it," I walked upstairs, heading to the medical room, finally glad Kayo was coming back.

/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/

Hello guys! Sorry for both the longer-than-expected posting of this chapter and the extremely long chapter. Long story short? My laptop deleted all of the pre-written chapters when it died, along with all of the other things I had on it. So I've quickly written this up and I will re-write up all of the next chapters, and post a bunch of them whenever I finish my current Art project, probably at the weekend. But anyway, I hope you guys are enjoying, everything will kick off in the next few chapters, and if you guys want to see anything else, please tell me! Thank you for reading !


	22. Chapter 22 - Kayo

Chapter 22 – Kayo

 _Back to normal time now_

"He seems to always be following us," Virgil muttered. That seemed as dodgy as shit. The fact he looked like a con artist wasn't helping either.

"Dodgy," I muttered.

"I know, right," Virgil gave him the evils, before gesturing for me to walk over to John and EOS, who were still scribbling in boxes on the forms. It must look weird, a little kid signing in paperwork. Then again, we weren't hanging around for long, at least, not long enough for people to question. After a bit, the forms were done and EOS and John were handing them in to the reception area. I was quite glad to be leaving – it meant no more slutty nurses. And no more overly-clean crap. And no more of this con artist guy which seems to have been following my brothers for a long time. And I _would_ say the end of all this medical shit, but technically I still got eight weeks of it. Which I could not cope with. Tell you what, I'll agree to eight hours. Ten at most. Because I was already bored out of my skull. And what would I normally do when I was bored? Either annoying Penny or Lila or snooping around on the GDF's systems – oh, did I not mention? I can get into their systems – and find somewhere they're operating and shadow them. And I couldn't do either of these, not with my relatively overprotective brothers around, anyway. So I'm stuck on the verges of dying from boredom, even though entertainment may well be on my doorstep. And people will act sick to skip school or work! Pulling sickies seems stupid now that I'm struggling from the lack of entertaining things to do.

"Come on, then," John finally said, nodding at the door. THANK GOD! John and Virgil went outside first, followed by me and EOS. And, my God, I was so glad to finally be out of the confinement of 'hospital'. Okay, yeah, I still felt shit and lightheaded and the sun was so bright it could kill Satan, but still I enjoyed not being a building designed to house sick and dying people. And I enjoyed that cold, crisp wintery air, as well as the very thin frost on the grass and the remnants of the flowers on the bushes. I think I may be one of the only ones out of the people at IR who thought winter was beautiful. And here was a prime example. From here, you couldn't see too many buildings, only the blue-washed silhouettes of the silver birch trees, and you could see on the closer trees there was a delicate veil of frost over the trees. How could people prefer summer over this? How can people prefer the time of year where you're prone to heatstroke over this?

"Kayo," John dug around in his bag, "You're practically freezing. Again. Put this on," He pulled out a black jumper and shoved it at me. I could tell it was either his or Scott's jumper – it would be miles too big for me, I may as well have a swim in it.

"But I'm not cold," I hissed, but shrugged the jumper on either way. I wasn't in the mood for any form of fight. Speaking of which, was Scott at Tracy Island? God, he was bound to yell at me as soon as I got back for going out without asking or telling him first. I don't think I could go through that and stay sane, at least, not now. I was dreading it. And normally I don't dread these fights, or as he so delicately puts it, 'having a word'. I usually look forward to trying to get my point across. But not today. Not yet. Please not yet.

"Kayo, I agree that you're not 'cold'. You're freezing." John muttered, "Anyway, you looking forward to going back home?" I nodded, because I was, except the little aspect of Scott and his 'words with me'. Why did my mind have to go and suddenly change my mind right before I was asked a question? My luck wasn't being brilliant today. If it keeps going like this, it looks like we _will_ be having words after all. Oh God. Virgil somehow seemed to be eavesdropping, and even better, knew what I was thinking about.

"Oi, Kayo," He whispered, slowing down so he could stand next to me, with John slipping forward to walk ahead with EOS, "We're not letting him talk to you about that until you're better and up for it, okay? And if he does and you don't want him to, I'll always be hovering around and John's only a call away, yeah?" He looked down at me, "God, you really don't want to have an argument, do you?" He wrapped an arm around my shoulder, something that only he could subtly pull off, rubbing his hand up and down my shoulder. "Don't worry. We're making sure he won't push you out of your comfort zone. But just remember something - he can't make you do or be anything without you accepting it, okay?"

"It's not that easy," I muttered. It wasn't. He could end up forcing me into it. Doing things like practically stalking me and taking away Thunderbird S, like he once threatened to do (granted, that day we was generally annoyed, and I was up for a fight, so he probably didn't mean it, but still). And then the only way to be happy is to accept it. To adapt to it, really. It seemed harsh, but it was true. He could do that. And he would, too. I knew he could. I mean, yeah, thought of him differently, but he still could. I learnt that quickly – people can change in as little as two seconds if they're pushed to the right circumstances.

"Kayo, I swear I won't let him do anything like that. I mean, come on, being able to punch somebody once and have them out cold for, what, an hour at least, and not give them a black eye in the process – well, unless you want to - now _that's_ something that shouldn't be wasted. And doing rescues left right and centre isn't helping that. So if he tries to push you into that, tell me and I'm decking him." Virgil said, and, honestly, I found the thought of gentle Virgil punching somebody hilarious. This was all contradicting the thoughts I has having earlier about him looking menacing. Why did my thoughts keep contradicting? "Besides," Virgil continued, "He's in a nice mood today. The chances of him yelling at you are equal to the chances that Gordon will end up getting laid using one of his pick-up lines. The chances of him not yelling at you are completely in your favour."

"Well, yeah, but-"

"No buts, the chances of him yelling at you whilst you're like this is minimal, if he yells at you, he's dead. Full stop." Virgil said. I didn't answer. It was pointless fighting with him. But I did roll my eyes, staring at the pavement. I didn't usually associate Scott with 'having a word' (for you people who read mainly in English, 'having a word' roughly translates into _Having-A-Fight-But-In-A-Way-That-Grandma-Wouldn't-Tell-Us-Off-For-Arguing-And-Fighting-Subtly-Because-We-Can't-Agree-On-Whether-To-Do-Rescues-As-And-When-They-Come-Meaning-Nearly-Nothing-Like-Deaths-And-Broken-Bones-Can-Be-Prevented-Due-To-The-Inefficient-Lack-Of-Early-Help-_ _ **OR**_ _-To-Prevent-Several-Rescues-By-Nipping-It-In-The-Bud-And-All-Together-Preventing-So-Many-Rescues-And-Casualties-And-Reducing-The-Risk-Of-Injury-For-All-Of-Us-Meaning-More-Time-To-Be-A-Family_ ), but recently my mind just kept going over all of our fights – oh, sorry, our 'words' – and just trying to see what he'd say this time. I did this occasionally, like the day I got back the decoding device and John had a massive lecture at me for, as I called it, shadow-boxing, I had sat there debating it after John had his own 'word' with me. I guess I was just imagining the worst case in scenario, but still, didn't prove useful at all.

After about twenty minutes walking in nearest dammit silence, we were all packed up and in Thunderbird 2. EOS called shotgun, since she seemed to enjoy peering out the windows, with John sitting behind her and me behind Virgil. And after about ten minutes with EOS constantly asking about the surroundings, I found myself in the same situation as when I was watching the meerkats with EOS; floating in and out of sleep, having to force my eyes to stay open. Eventually I gave in, letting my eyes fall shut like they seemed intent on doing.

Besides, I'd only be asleep for ten odd minutes. What's the worst that could happen?

/~~/~~/~~/~~/~~/~~/~~/~~/~~/~~/~~/~~/

After what felt like ten minutes, I finally decided to wake up, finding myself feeling drowsy and wanting to curl back up to sleep. If you could call it sleeping – I felt like I'd wasted a good few minutes of my life wasted in the darkness of my mind. I squinted my eyes, not feeling up to doing too much that quickly. But the immediate colour of the smears of colours I see send questions through my mind. The colours were smears of honey-glazed wood and beige. Wood? Beige? None of those colours were in Thunderbird 2, not to this stage. So why was that all I seeing. And then it hit me. I clearly wasn't asleep for ten minutes. Because I was in one of Tracy Island's medical rooms.

As soon as the realisation hit me, I suddenly lifted my head in one swift movement, then regretted it immediately after. A massive streak of undiluted pain shot through my head and neck, making me lower my head back onto the pillow. Well, that hurt like a bitch. I had just about gotten rid of it when I heard a voice behind me,

"Hey, c'mon, that's not a good idea, is it?" I shifted my head slightly to see Scott sitting on one of the armchairs, leaning over to pull the blanket back over my shoulders. He looked slightly annoyed. _Shit_. "How you feeling?" He asked as if nothing had happened. That confused me. Wasn't he annoyed? I just shrugged, not even attempting to make up an answer, trying to look at the ornate wall clock to try and work out how long I was sleep for. It would at least be three hours, if I remembered the distance it takes for TB2 to fly from London to Tracy Island accurately. Unfortunately, the shadows was playing on the clock weirdly, so I couldn't read it clearly. But I was pretty sure the longest hand was pointing straight up. That or there was some weird thing happening with the clock. Scott seemed to pick up on what I was questioning. "Yeah, you've been asleep for about six hours." He whispered, ripping open an airtight bag. Six hours? Nah, just nah. I refuse to believe that. "Well, we're guessing six hours," Scott continued, trying to open the bag with his hands but eventually gave up and started digging around in some draws, probably for scissors, "Well, Virgil thought you were being quiet and about half way through the journey he went to ask you if you were feeling okay, and you were asleep." He said, finally opening the bag and pulling out one of the thermal blankets. Oh, so I was asleep for closer to seven hours than six, if I could remember correctly. But even that information, bearing in mind it was the last thing I saw before falling asleep, it all seemed hazed out. But how could I sleep for that long and not wake up? There must have been a lot of noise – a generally loud Thunderbird 2 landing was enough to wake anybody up, especially somebody like me, who wakes up at things like somebody walking around in their room or going to get a drink. And I usually went to bed at 10 and woke up sometime around half 4 since my body wouldn't let me sleep any longer, so I'd only usually sleep for about six and a half hours, if we take out the fact I always wake up briefly every half-hour and can't get back to sleep for at _least_ five minutes after I wake up. That takes me back to about five and a half hours. And even that is a stretch for me. So how the Hell could I have slept for 7 hours and not woken up once?

"You look confused," Scott smirked, laying the thermal blanket on top of the already thick duvet I had over me. "You're bloody freezing," Scott said, making me roll my eyes when he wasn't looking. I don't think I am; if I was, wouldn't I be shivering and have goose bumps by now? Apparently not. "Aren't you cold?" He asked, and I shook my head. Nope. Not in the slightest. But, then again, now that blanket was on, I was enjoying the extra warmth. That's odd. "Also," Scott suddenly dropped his voice down to a mutter, and I was sure he was going to snap at me. God, here we go, "Virgil told me that if I had a word with you about going out to the GDF warehouse where you got shot, I'd get decked by him," I tried to fully listen, but some annoying part in my brain kept going _, He's going to snap at you soon_.

"Did you actually think I'd yell at you as soon as you'd come back?"

Now that made me just feel guilty. Well, no, but… Ugh, it's complicated. I mean, of course I didn't naturally associate it, but, and part of me hates me for saying this, but I was kind of preparing for it, even if I was preparing for the worst case scenario. I shifted uncomfortably, curling up a bit more, lying on my side, one hand pulling the duvet up to my neck and the other hand slipped under the pillow, half-burying my face under it. I didn't want to have an argument now. I felt like shit. I had a migraine for ages now. I just felt like curling up in a corner. I really couldn't be asked for a fight. Not now. Please not now.

"Kayo?" I heard him say again. I really didn't want this. I desperately didn't want it. Not now. But, like usual, I probably didn't have a choice. It would just happen despite the fact I was mentally pleading for the fight to happen just sometime else. But if it makes him happy, then I guess I'll just have to go through with it. It's what I always said I'd do – if it made the boys happy, I'd do it. I promised Jeff that. I guess I'd just have to bite my tongue and go along with it. And it was then I felt him sit on the bed. My natural reaction was to flinch. And I regretted it immediately after. I hadn't flinched in ages when somebody came near. I only really did that when I first came to the island. And, of course, my brain just had to trigger it back again in this situation. It was probably making Scott feel bad too. Yes, very clever, you stupid piece of crap of a brain, now SHUT THE HECK UP BRAIN. Which is quite weird, because if I added an 's' onto every time I just thought the word 'Brain', it would change the whole concept. And then I could feel the bed shift slightly as Scott laid down next to me. Once again, my natural instinct was to flinch or back away, and I was struggling to stop it. I was trying so hard I was holding my breath, trying not to do anything else, just to focus on not letting my jackass of a brain not do what it wanted. Turned out he only laid down on the bed for a hug. And as soon as I was sure he was only hugging me, I finally let my breath out, and quite shakily too, to my bad luck. God, I'm probably just making Scott feel like a twat, when I'm the twat here. He didn't do anything. It was my fault for not forgetting what happened all those years ago. It was my fault for not letting go, because if I did, he wouldn't feel guilty. I told you I was the twat in this situation. And I could tell Scott felt bad, too,

"Kayo?" I heard him start again, "Kayo, I'm not going to yell at you. I mean, yeah, to begin with I was annoyed that you went out without permission, or even telling me, but I don't blame you, okay?" Oh. Didn't expect that. "Besides," he continued, "None of the whole shooting thing is your fault anyway. Colonel Casey's been weird recently. So weird that I wouldn't be surprised if… You know what? Pretend that last sentence never happened."

"Weird?" I shifted my head to look up at him. "What kind of weird?"

"Dunno. Except she's gotten snappy at everything. And she's acting differently. Like she's a different person. Her mannerisms, I mean. Like you know she's all anti-leg-crossing? She's done that about ten times already." He sighed, "Anyway, we're not talking about that, are we? We're-" I could tell he was about to begin again, but the whole thing about me not being able to keep my eyes open for long was beginning again. And Scott had noticed it too. "You're practically asleep there, aren't you?" Scott muttered, pulling the duvet up to my neck. "Come on. Get some rest." I just nodded, then buried my head into his shoulder. I was, once again, enjoying the extra warmth. Which made no sense, since earlier I was sweating my tits off. Now I was enjoying warmth. It didn't take long for me to nod off, but before I did, I'm pretty sure I could feel Scott kiss my forehead.

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Hello! So I have officially finished up the draft for the next few chapters, so I'm back on track. So I hope you enjoyed and I will post the next chapter soon, when things will begin to kick off. Thank you for reading!


	23. Chapter 23 - Scott

Chapter 23 – Scott

 _Slightly overlapped with Chapter 22_

Now this was something I never thought would ever happen. Kayo was actually _willing_ to have a hug. Normally she hated that sort of thing, physical closeness. But I couldn't blame her – I could remember when I was in hospital after a mission once – I didn't get shot, but I did have several burns on my body, mainly around my back and my upper arms – and the hospital had to give me several drugs to prevent risks of infection. And that was for barely burned burns – Dad only took me because, if they did somehow get infected, he'd never forgive himself. But those few drugs made me feel like I wanted to go curl up in a corner and just forget everything that was going on. So, if Kayo had a lump of potentially poisonous metal in her, and had appropriate drugs, I didn't want to think how she must feel. But I think a worse thought was if they _didn't_ give her appropriate treatment. I had text Lila once Kayo had come here and Virgil had plugged all the machines into her and replaced the gauze that covered up the side. I had told Lila the truth, including how bad her side looked – it was bruised in shades of grey and purple, probably where she fell over or hit the ground or something, and the area where she was actually shot, despite the grafted skin and artificially grown muscle tissue covering it, still looked red and inflamed to me – granted, may have been the awkward lighting in the room because the light didn't come from the ceiling like usual but a floor lamp in the corner – and it was clear to see where the bullet actually entered. There was a patch, no wider than a centimetre in diameter (or 0.5 cm in radius for people who like math(s) and circles) which seemed to vault upwards towards her ribs. And I knew why the suit was designed like that when it came to projectiles such as the bullet – there was a tiny patch where no organs sat around there on either side. And no science teacher will tell you that. But Brains designed the suit so, if something like this happened, it would aim for that area. And worst case scenario, it would only puncture a lung sack. And, yeah, sounds bad, but it's better than a shoot to the, I dunno, liver. I can't quite remember what happened if you're shot straight on, though. I imagine Brains worked something out. And I bet he told me, too. But could I remember? Nope!

But I still felt guilty, for a few reasons, too. One: why the hell I didn't check up on Thunderbird S' status; normally I wouldn't feel guilty about that because I wasn't meant to know and had no reason to, but the thing was I wanted to check up anyway. But I didn't. And if I did, maybe I could have prevented this. Two: I barely had checked up on her during the last time. I mean, granted, Penelope turned into Mother Goose and went absolutely bat-crap crazy whenever I wanted to see her in the 'hospital' whilst she was there (Kayo wasn't there now because we had agreed she was going to stay here when we first signed the forms). It ultimately sucked, and the text I sent to Lila was exactly the words that came out of Virgil's mouth when I asked him what was wrong. Writing whilst being in shock was quite a task, but it proved easier than it immediately sounded because they were re-doing the scans which delayed info, and I don't blame them for doing scans again if they didn't trust the 'hospital' (anybody noticed that I'm not using the word hospital oddly? Yeah, if you weren't informed, they found that not only was they treating patients correctly but they found rats, _rats_ , in their staff room, and that they were just leaving their patients to die once they got to a certain critical stage). And the third and final reason, and maybe the worst one, was the way Kayo flinched when I sat down on the bed. Why did she flinch? Surely she wasn't… Scared? Okay, I'll admit, on some of your words, I _may_ have overreacted. But the thing was, she was always so confident about her point. And, admittedly, she could have good evidence. And comebacks. I couldn't quite remember the day, I think it might have been the day when CATCH shut down in the Arizona Desert, we were having an argument, and as far as I could remember, she was on about how if she didn't stop the person – who received a black eye, by the way – if she didn't stop him and get back the Echelon Coding Device he could have gotten onto systems, I had said that he didn't – and I wasn't wrong, when he would've been hacking into systems he was instead holding ice to his black eye – and Kayo immediately picked up on it, and agreed. And I realised I was only backing her up. Yeah, I was not amused. Not in the slightest. But, back to the subject, she seemed so confident. But was I actually scaring her? I mean, yeah, most of the time she doesn't do rescues I had to have a word with her, and, yes, sometimes it can turn into more of a fight. But I'd never dream of _hurting_ her. Not physically, mentally, anything. So why did she associate having a word with me hurting her? I mean, maybe it was the drugs, or that she was shivering, even, but to the grade she jumped, I would have to assume she flinched. But, seriously, why would she automatically assume, when I was going to have a word with her (and not even like that, I just wanted to tell her that having a word wasn't necessary, but still technically having a word), why did she associate having a word with violence? Then a thought strikes me, and I feel that massive pang of guilt intensify. Maybe… The Hood?

My heart began to race with pure anger, and panic. Is there a chance of that? It's not like he's not enough of a bastard. And she came here when she was five. _Five. Five_ years for anything to happen to her that we wouldn't know about. And the first five odd years is the main development of a person's natural reactions. And she wasn't exactly healthy-looking when she first came here! And I was at least ten then. I was old enough to understand something like this. It was hard to know if Dad knew – one day he'd act like he knew every single detail about her down to her thoughts, the next he's acting like she's some wild thing that he'd never be able to know in the slightest. But why didn't she tell anybody? Okay, not like that, obviously if it did happen she wouldn't go yelling about it. Lemme rephrase that – why didn't she tell us so we could help her? She could have even just written it down, shoved it under one of our bedroom doors. Any of us would have helped her. I would, and Virgil certainly would. And I wouldn't blame her for not trying the other three with something like that; John wasn't overly helpful in that department, at least not as good as me and Virgil, but he was still at least _some_ help, but Alan and Gordon would probably make up jokes about it and snitch, well, they would at the age they were at. But she always me and Virg. And, besides, the chances were minimal of that. Maybe instead it was the hostility she witnesses on covert ops missions? Maybe it was her doing her worst-case-scenario thing? More than likely one of those two.

Speaking of Kayo – well, not speaking, more thinking -, she's been quiet. After I managed to pull her into a cuddle, I had told her to get some rest. We were both laying on our sides, with me outstretching an arm under head for her to use as a pillow, and putting my other hand gently over her side. And, sure enough, she had her eyes closed, buried up into my shoulder, breathing softly. God, has she actually fallen asleep? Asleep with me actually next to her? Hugging her? It was a stretch for her to fall asleep with somebody else in the room who wasn't asleep themselves, never mind hugging her. And, my God, she was adorable asleep. She was laying half-curled up on her side, one hand slid under the pillow, and the other holding the duvet to her chest. She looked beautiful here. She looked beautiful in general to me. Which may be a bit concerning, as she is my adopted sister. But she was still beautiful. And freezing. Very freezing. Well, that kind of ruined the moment. I shifted onto my back and slid her up onto my side as I reached over to grab one of my hoodies. And as I had finally picked it up, I felt her suddenly move. The words, _shit, she's woken up_ , came to mind. But she hadn't. She was only adjusting herself to sleep on my side, one hand, and the hand still holding the duvet but the other one, the other hand against my shirt, and burying her head into my shoulder. God, she was adorable. She was freaking adorable. And I was honoured enough to be getting cuddles from her. Normally if we got cuddles from her, we'd have to be extremely upset, as in, crying our eyeballs out. But she wasn't denying anything here. I pulled the hoodie over her shoulders, and at the same time, I gently kissed her forehead, careful not to wake her up. I mean, she was beautiful, and not many people could defy that: wide eyes that shone in beautiful shades of emerald green and gold, dished little face, long silky hair. Yeah, she was pretty. Nobody can deny that. But they _can_ deny having crushes on her, because there's a massive difference between having a crush on somebody and stating that they're pretty. But every day I felt myself falling fast for the first one of those two. And I had no clue why. I mean, she was virtually Alan's age – only eighteen days older than him if I could remember correctly – and normally that would turn me away from girls, things like that. But it never happened with Kayo. I still did think that she was beautiful. And clever. And, quite frankly, a stubborn git. But all these things made her, well, _her_. And I loved that about her. I was almost confident enough to say that I loved her full stop. But I wasn't sure if it would ever be returned, considering how she flinched – several times – when I just simply went to hug her. It was probably impossible for her to love me back whilst she's like this. No, the chances are minimal for right now.

But still, she had actually fallen asleep next to me. That was an achievement in itself. And if I may not get any more cuddles, why not enjoy this one? I rested my cheek against her forehead, trying to ignore how deathly cold she was, and began to rub my hand up and down her upper arm. With my spare hand, I scooped up the holo-projector. I wanted to know about the guy who was apparently in the crap-yard of a hospital, the guy stalking my brothers and sister. Thing is, I would have taken it for a coincidence. I would if it wasn't for that badge he had. Gold with some green marking. Like The Hood had on his over-sized tie. I got a picture of him up, one that was taken when he was sent to Parkmoore Scrubs, and immediately tried to ignore the features that he and Kayo had in common; same short height, green eyes, black hair. I mean, yeah, they may just be a biological-family thing. But they do look familiar. And I hate myself for thinking that. She never did anything wrong, and if she ever somehow did, it wouldn't ever be bad enough to be associated with that cunt. Anyway, back to business. I zoomed in onto his tie, and sure enough a little badge was just able to be seen. But it was way too pixilated to make out any details. Damnit. It was at that time the door clicked open. Virgil slowly entered, his eyes first fixed on Kayo, his face full of concern, but when he saw me cuddling her his face turned stone as he gave me a death look. Is it just me who's sensing a favouritism?

"So I guess you had a word with her, then," Virgil practically hissed at me.

"No. I told her that we didn't need to 'have a word', actually," I mumbled, careful not to wake her up, now that she was asleep.

"So you wouldn't, by any chance, have yelled at her, and then realised that she was either feeling shit by the fact she probably curled up, or that I'd come and deck you when I found out, then tried to make it back up to her to get her to shut up," He seemed to be blankly ignoring me as he swapped a little plastic bag with clear liquid for a fuller one. Well, ouch. Didn't think my own brother would think that.

"No," I hissed, staring at him even though he wouldn't look me in the eye. "Of course I wouldn't. Did you seriously think I would?"

"Hmm," He grunted, writing something on the chalkboard before plugging up an oxygen machine.

"How did she seem?" He virtually muttered as he gently slid the oxygen machine onto Kayo.

"She seemed to be mostly asleep. She was only awake for five minutes max. She seemed a bit confused at first, but other than that she just seemed to want a hug, turns out she was barely awake."

"You had a word with her when she wasn't awake and able to defend herself?" Virgil gave me one of the dirtiest looks known to man before writing something else on the board.

"How many times! I. Did not. Have. A go at her!" I muttered, hugging her slightly closer.

"Yeah, well, I'll believe it _if_ she can tell me that you didn't have a word with her when she wakes up. And I mean _honestly_ tell me." He said.

"Why the hell are you like this?" I hissed at him. Why was he immediately pinning everything on me? Did I upset him?

"Because you're going to fucking have a go at her."

"Oi, language. And, in the case that you weren't actually listening to me for the last odd minute, I'm. Not. Going. To. Have. A word. With her. And. I. Have. Not. Had. A word. With her!"

"You are and I bet you have."

"Fine, if I do you can have the rest of the cans of Tango in the cupboard and my sweets left over from Sunday, okay? And why would _me_ having a word with _her_ annoy _you_?" I stared at him. He wasn't making eye contact – how you can tell when somebody's been lying. "What are you covering up?"

"Nothing," He muttered, sitting on the end of the bed and staring out the window.

"Virge?"

"Fine," He muttered under his breath. I knew he was going to tell me; if he wasn't he would of just left the room, put on a fake smile and left as soon as possible. But he was still here, so of course he wanted to talk. "It's The Hood and the whole trial thing." He muttered. Oh shit, I forgot about that with everything going on. "It's just stupid that he tried to kill somebody else."

"You think he killed…" I whispered. I mean, I kind of accepted Dad may be dead, but as a way to keep going, I always just hoped, hoped, he'd be alive. Somehow. Somewhere. Even if we never saw him again, I always wanted to think he was still alive, even if it meant I was setting myself up for disappointment, and even if it was wishful thinking. If he was alive, I didn't want to say I gave up on him.

"I'm not saying The Hood did kill him, I said he _did try_ to kill him." Virgil sighed. "But… I'm just annoyed Kayo has to go to it, all because her dad disappeared and didn't give two fucks about her. Like, who the heck ditches their kid? And why the heck can't he come back?"

"Language. And I don't know, but the best thing we can do is help her. And maybe even convince her to let one of us go with her."

"Mate, do you have a death wish? Trying to convince her is like trying to convince a rock to become a unicorn." Virgil sighed, "Nah, she's not going to let any of us go. She doesn't wanna hurt us."

"Hurt us?" I whispered, "What d'you mean, hurt us?"

"At the hospital when John told her about the trial, she said she'd go alone because she didn't want us to get hurt." Virgil sighed, staring at Kayo who must have been high on morphine or oxytocin or montra (a drug created in the world war in 2040; it was effectively a drug that had both the effects of morphine and tequila) or some other drug to be willing to have a hug without a legitimate reason, "Do you reckon she means he'd try to do the same to us as he did to Dad? Or something else?" I shrugged, careful not to wake her up. But I was quite intrigued why she was willing to go alone. And then the door opened again, and John walked in. God, if Kayo woke up to find us having some sort of family gathering over her when she was asleep, well, I feel like we won't be forgiven easily. John looked absolutely terrible – he always did after spending over a day over earth, but the past few days must've caught up with him. He had dark bags under his eyes that almost looked a bruised purple against his pale skin. He wasn't walking properly, almost slumping as he walked, probably from the change in gravity. And he looked _thoroughly_ pissed off. And I was clearly right about the gravity bit. As he walked in, he suddenly lost his balance, and stumbled almost drunkly to the side where there was a stack vials and syringes on a chest of draws, knocking them all cleanly off the surface of the chest before they all shattered in to small crystallized shards on the laminate floor. And, without looking at him, I could tell Virgil was giving John the evils. Here's the thing about the medical rooms and the infirmary – Virgil will get very overprotective since if we were in one of them, it meant one of us was hurt. And he got extremely over protective of both the infirmary, which was his workspace for when he was studying medicine, and of us. Put both of them together equals the most protective human on the planet. And if anybody hurt either the infirmary, the medical rooms surrounding it or the person who was hurt, then, well, he turns into Smother Hen. Which I suppose is what happened when he thought I had a word with Kayo then hugged her to get her to keep it a secret from Virgil. Which was not what happened – I saw her insecure about something – I still don't know what The Something was – and I tried to help her. But it would explain why Virgil turned into Smother Hen. And he was still glaring at John, who was sweeping up the broken glass into a dustpan, something Virgil clearly ordered him to do. I looked down at Kayo, and saw her still laying where she was for the last God knows how long, but instead of being asleep she was just lying still, squinting to get used to the light. And Virgil noticed shortly after me. God, John was as good as dead with Smother Hen sitting virtually on top of him.

"John," Virgil said harshly. "Have you seen what you've managed to do?"

"Yes, I broke the vials, I'm sorry." John sighed, dumping the glass shards in the bin.

"Yeah, and on top of that?" Virgil waited for John to look him in the eye before nodding his head towards Kayo, who had stopped squinting and was looking around, probably trying to tell the time.

"Kayo!" John suddenly stood up, which made Kayo squint and flinch at the same time from the sudden change in noise, "Kayo, you're awake!"

"No. I'm still asleep." Kayo hissed, ripping off the oxygen mask and rolling her eyes.

"Glad to see you didn't lose your sarcasm," I smirked, rubbing her upper arm again. Since she woke up, she'd gotten a little warmer. But she had gone from as cold as the dead to hypothermia-cold. I wasn't happy with her being hypothermia-cold. I wasn't happy with the people who did her Repercussion cocking it up. I wasn't happy with the GDF for shooting her in the first place. But at the end of the day, it wasn't anybody's fault, well, nobody in this room anyway. I became aware that Kayo was beginning to shift, and for a second I thought she was just getting herself comfy, but then I worked out what she was trying to do – she was trying to sit up.

"Oi, Kayo, lay back down." I hissed, pulling her elbow down as she kept trying to sit up. Nope, she showed no intentions of laying down.

"Kayo," Virgil hissed as I sat up, trying to get her down. She wasn't exactly fighting back or desperate to sit up, she was just being an independent shit and ignoring us. Or maybe she was just enjoying the concept of annoying us. "Kayo, since I'm taking care of your medical care, I'm ordering you to lay back down,"

"She doesn't listen to orders, Virge, I learnt that the hard way," I smirked as she finally sank down, rolling her eyes. She probably didn't do it because Virgil told her to, she probably did it because she wore herself out. She probably was high on morphine or something, because she didn't seem to give two shits, compared to normal Kayo, who fought for every single one of her thoughts. Well, she was either high – which made her act like a relatively normal person instead of a stubborn little shit – or she was still half-asleep.

"Right, thank you," I hissed sarcastically at her as John sat down on a chair, and within a few seconds he was on a holo-projector. His natural habitat. I stood up now Kayo was awake to pick up the bottle of lemonade I had brought in, but when I turned around I could see Kayo – the little shit – had quickly managed to sit herself up. And when I was about to question why Virgil didn't stop her, I saw him plugging in the machines that were designed to flush out the drugs running through her system. Our plan was to just stick to simple painkillers such as paracetamol and ibuprofen, and top it up with other drugs to begin with if needed, but that way she wouldn't be too prone to any form of poisoning. And that was that Virgil was currently doing, getting it ready for Miss I'll-Ignore-All-Of-You-And-Sit-Up.

"Hey, Virge, checked what your patient's doing?" I smirked as he turned around to give Kayo, who was quite content 'looking out the window', the dirtiest look known to mankind.

"Ugh," Virgil hissed, walking around to the side of the bed, "Fine. You can sit up. But at least lean against the pillows, just in case if you faint or something." He slid the pillows up behind her back as she whispered something to him. And then, as he was sorting out the machines they kept whispering something to each other, something that was inaudible from my distance. So whilst they spoke, I just stared over John's shoulder, trying to read the several lines of code for both an html and ccs coding sheet whilst Virgil plugged in several machines into Kayo.

/~~/~~/~~/~~/~~/~~/~~/~~/~~/~~/~~/~~/

After about an odd few hours, Virgil managed to clear out all the drugs out of Kayo's system, which had caused her to fall asleep as the drug that was clearly keeping her awake was now out of her system, and we gave her a mild painkiller. I also noticed, although she was still quite cold, she had warmed up considerably. John, after unpacking his stolen goods from Royal Oakley, decided to go back up to the satellite, under the excuse that it would give EOS a break from being 'human', and Virgil was catching back up on sleep, along with everybody else (since everybody but me had dealt with the Holiday 'Rescues') except me. It seemed sensible to be getting some sleep – it was eleven thirty at night – but I wanted to make sure Kayo was okay with the new change in the drugs. I didn't really fancy finding a sick girl in the morning, or in an extreme case, a corpse. So I had been sitting for the last half hour, chair pulled up next to Kayo and my elbows on my knees, watching her machines closely, mostly daydreaming about the things I was thinking about earlier today; why I felt so guilty, why Kayo may have flinched away, and how beautiful she looked, now that she wasn't keeping her own form of security up around her all the time. We left the curtains half open, with the light of the nearly full moon leaking over the hospital bed and illuminating Kayo's face. Within the last hours, John and Virgil had jointly told me about Kayo and the adoption paperwork not being fully signed, meaning she wasn't our adopted sister. Well, she'd still be our sister in our hearts, the girl who probably learnt to trust people from me, my brothers and Dad. But I couldn't help feeling slightly – and this is going to make me sound really bad – I was kind of happy. Yeah, I know it sounds harsh, but it meant, if she felt the same way I did about her, then at least there was a small chance it could work out without being, well, wrong in the fact she was legally my sister. I was just taking a sip from my bottle of lemonade when I noticed Kayo was starting to wake up, her eyelids fluttering as she slowly adjusted herself to the darkness of the night. And then, as if she was continuing to be a pain in the backside, she tried to shift herself up.

"Hey, come on," I put the bottle on the table before kneeling on the bed, holding her wrist in one hand and running my hand through her hair with the other. Shortly after she had fallen asleep, Virgil decided to take it out of her usual ponytail, claiming it was to make her more comfy when he slid her down from her half-sitting position ever so slightly, but I knew, like everybody else, that they enjoyed seeing her with her hair down and in its natural side fringe, because if there's one hairstyle that makes her look prettier than up in a ponytail, it's with her hair down. "Come on, it's half eleven at night Kayo."

"Is it?" She whispered, staring out the glass panels.

"Yeah, come on, get some rest, yeah?" I muttered as I sat her back down like she was before.

"Scott?" She whispered.

"Yeah?" 

"Why did John look so tired this afternoon?" She whispered as I tucked the blanket up to her stomach, still holding one of her hands.

"He was just tired from the gravity on earth, that's all." 

"Why didn't he just go back up to Thunderbird 5?" Her voice was cracking slightly now.

"He was looking after you, wasn't he?" I muttered, and as soon as I finished the sentence she began to start trying to sit up again, but this time when I tried to sit her back down, she tried to push me away. She was too weak to push me away, probably from recent events, but I feel like even if she was strong enough, she wouldn't do it in a way that would hurt me. I just pulled her into a hug, one arm around her back and the other gently cradling her head. "Hey, come on," I whispered, "What's all this for?"

"He should have gone back up if he was feeling bad," I heard her mutter.

"He wanted to stay and make sure you were better," I whispered, aware of somebody walking down the hall.

"But he made himself like that all because I was a twat and went to that warehouse,"

"You're not a twat, Kay. How were you supposed to know you'd get shot?" I whispered.

"I should have just been more careful or just stayed back at the island,"

"And if you did you'd beat yourself up for _not_ going, wouldn't you?" I gently laid down on the bed, pulling Kayo down with me and pulling the blanket over both of us in the hope I could get her back to sleep, and that she wouldn't become nocturnal after this. And then I decided to do something that could make her lose all trust in me if I did this wrong.

I gently kissed her on her forehead, the immediately after bit my lip, half-expecting her to blow off at me. But instead, she just looked up at me, staring at me for a brief second, and then before I could even say anything we were kissing. I broke away after a while, aware and slightly anxious of the person padding around outside, but when I did we were both grinning, with Kayo resting her head back on my shoulder. I was honestly speechless. But words still wanted to drag themselves out my mouth.

"Did you… did you know?" I whispered. I meant about how much I fancied her, but I don't know if she guessed.

"I kind of got the idea. This confirmed it though," She whispered. Oh, so she did know what I was babbling about.

"How long?"

"A few months,"

"Why did you never tell me?" I whispered, then saw how it could sound cuntish.

"I didn't know how to, really."

"Huh?" I looked down at her, seeing her staring out the window.

"Scott, I'm socially awkward to begin with. And most people I meet I end up punching them between the eyes. I'm not good at a ten minute conversation, never mind anything like this," She whispered jokingly, making both of us laugh at the reference to punching people. To be fair, she wasn't wrong.

"Okay, yeah, touché." I whispered, wrapping the blanket around her shoulders. "Come on, get some sleep, okay?"

"Only if you do too," Kayo whispered, resting her forehead against the bottom of my neck. I nodded, and let her doze off first before I fell asleep myself, feeling happier than I did for the last few months.

/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/

Please don't kill me for this! I'm never good at starting things like love off since, hey, never had any form of experience of this kinda love so I have no clue how to do this. But I hope you guys were happy with it anyway! As for the next chapter, I'm planning to make it quite a long one that ties up all – well, most – of the loose ends floating around, and potentially give you an insight to what might happen next. And because I'm planning for this to be a big chapter – I'm planning around 7,000 words minimum to make sure I get in every detail – and due to me starting a new Art project, it may take a while for the next upload. Anyway, hope you enjoyed, please tell me if you'd like to see anything and I will post the next chapter as soon as possible :)!


	24. Chapter 24 - Kayo

Chapter 24 – Kayo

 _Forewarning: This chapter gets graphic at points and contains thoughts and ideas that might upset readers. If you are of a sensitive disposition and wish not to read, please don't feel obliged. I would definitely prefer you all of you to feel safe than read something that may upset or trigger you. I do not know if this information is true about Kayo's history – if there is any correct information to begin with – so this is just to fit in with the whole story. If you make the choice not to read, I fully respect that and I will make a brief update at the beginning of the next chapter so you guys still know roughly what happened. These events are all based on real events to people close to me, with each of these events happening to somebody I am extremely close to and altered in the fanfic to mix in with what's happened, except one event that isn't real, which should be made obvious if you choose to read._

I had no clue how long it took for me to fall asleep, but as soon as I did, I could feel something wasn't right. Usually, before I had any form of a dream – on the rare occasion I did have dreams in my sleep – there wasn't a massive period of time where it feels like you're floating around in darkness before the dream, probably like most people would, but I wouldn't know because I'm only one person, and I'm a single person who will have a very short period of time before a dream _if_ I have a dream. But that was what I was stuck in. An absolutely massive period of time where I was ditched in the dull darkness of my brain. And any kinds of daydreams I could possibly conjure went awry before I could even begin. And after some period of time, there's finally some shift in the impending dooming of darkness. All I saw was a long-lasting coast in front of me, with pearly white sand, sapphire waves lapping on the sand to my right and a lush jungle of some sort to my left. And when I looked down, I saw myself in navy jeans, my old yet still well-fitting riding boots for when my brothers and I all went riding some weekends, and a black jumper that was way too big for me, to the stage where instead of the bottom ending on my hips like most hoodies do for most people but instead ended mid-thigh, and the sleeves had to be rolled up to three-quarters of the way up my arms, and though the elastic of the sleeve stopped three-quarters of the way down my arm, the rest of the material sank down to just above my thumb. For most people, the idea of being on such a beautiful coast would be like a dream holiday, but as the realisation hit me about why I was dreaming about this, I just wanted to wake up and throw up.

This never normally happened, but when it did, I could never cope properly for the next day. Couldn't function properly for the next day. And that was only if I got extremely lucky.

In a nutshell, occasionally – and by occasionally, I mean once in a few years most of the time – my brain will be a freaking scumbag and remind me of all the worst crap that's happened in my life. And it won't even be polite about it, either – it will remind me of every tiny horrific thing that happened, and my brain won't even wait until nothing's going on in my life, wait until I can actually have a day to recover, if you will; it will wait until a time I really need to be secure, to be able to cope with all the stresses life will be giving me, only to knock down any sense of being secure I have. Welcome to how much of a jackass my very own brain can be! I could remember looking up these dreams – well, more nightmares – up on the internet, trying to figure out what they were exactly and the closest thing to it I could find was night terrors, and even that wasn't accurate to these nightmares. If you look it up – and I mean, go look it up, you'll see what I mean – it's caused by anxiety (let me point out I don't have any anxiety), and usually accompanied by screaming, flailing, fast breathing, sweating, a lot of tears, etcetera, etcetera. Which is also a bloody lie, because I'll just jump up into a sit after I wake up, sit up for a few seconds to process I'm awake, then lay back down, ready to pretend to be asleep if Grandma did one of her mid-night spot checks on whether we were asleep or not. Yeah, occasionally I'll wake up in a sweat, but I blame that on the climate and thick duvets Grandma makes sure we use. And night terrors a sleep disorder, which means it regularly happens but, as already stated, it only happens, what, once every two, three, four years maybe. And night terrors are just flashes of memories through your own eyes, as if these things are happening to you again, but in these dreams it's like I'm walking for myself, seeing what happened to the young me through the eyes of somebody watching these events happening to the young me (you with that – you got it?). So I had no clue what to call it, except a pain up the arse. And there was only one way out of this dream-nightmare, and that was to walk my dream-projected-self forwards, and just see everything it had to 'offer', and when I woke up, just pretend to be normal, because where I would regularly be affected by this, I couldn't let anybody else I knew – basically everybody in IR – bite from my crappy mood all because of this shit that I was, technically, creating against my will.

I slumped down the cove, in no particular rush, scuffing my – dreamed-up – partially-polished riding boots – formally called ankle jodhpur boots, if I remembered the name correctly – through the white-peachy sand, keeping my head down and trying to count how many shells there was around. And by the time I must have walked for at least what felt like fifteen minutes, I had counted – like every time I had this nightmare – forty-nine. There may have been a fiftieth, but I'll never know. Because after the forty-ninth shell, my head is forced up, and then I'm frozen like that, unable to move, talk, focus on anything but the three figures ahead of me. And I knew all too well who the figures were. And I had to watch these events again, before I could walk around again.

The first one was me when I was little, hair floating around in the wind, no older than four or five.

The second one was my mother, who was at the time pregnant with who would've been my little brother.

And the third was The Hood.

And I was welcomed against my will into the same dialogue, the dialogue that probably changed my life, and if it didn't, I probably wouldn't have ever met the Tracy's. The young small me was sitting on the pier we were all somewhat around, unable to walk in the sea like I usually did and loved because of the fracture in my kneecap I got when me and my Mum were walking through the woods and I slipped off a rock, and the young me was scrubbing off sand from one of the shells, maybe the fiftieth shell – now that would be dark if it was shell fifty of the shells I was counting earlier. And then my Mum and Uncle were at least three metres away in the sea, leaving me in their sight but still far enough away to have their own conversation without me hearing – or so they thought. Because I surely heard the conversation, even if I couldn't make sense of it, to be hearing it now. But I full well know I was looking through my fringe as I hadn't tied my hair up that day, so I was watching what they were doing when they thought I was cleaning off a shell. I wish I hadn't been watching.

"No, I'm not doing it," I heard a female voice say, one I didn't recognise, but I knew full well it was my mother. And I felt guilty, for not recognising my own mother's voice.

"Why not?" I heard a male voice say, and I recognised this one immediately as The Hood. And I feel even guiltier that I knew his voice over my mother's.

"Because it's wrong! Can't you see that?" My mother hissed, walking slightly further into the sea, only to be followed further by my Uncle.

"And?"

"And I'm not helping you do it,"

"You will, I swear," Despite the distance they had gotten, I could see him grabbing her elbow.

"Make me," My mother hissed, pushing him off her elbow. Well, I could see where I got my stubbornness from. And then at that moment… I didn't want to talk about it. But let me sum it up anyway – he drowned my mother. He suffocated her under the water. Would that be suffocation or drowning? Asphyxiation maybe? Well, it didn't matter – no matter what way she died, he killed her, and he killed any chance of a sibling I had. He not only killed my mother but killed the person who may have been like Alan – my little brother. All lost in one go. And then, once he was sure she was dead, probably confirmed by the sapphire waves going from sapphire to ruby around her, he walked back to the scarred and shocked young me, who was trying to get away. I couldn't remember what my intentions were when trying to get away – maybe to tell my Dad, or just go and hide, maybe just run away, or get a paramedic for my mother. But I couldn't move far with my fractured kneecap, and in the time it took for him to get back to the shore I had only managed to just get to the edge of the jungle. And once he got over to me, he slapped me and started kicking my knee so I couldn't move, and told me that if I wanted to try and disobey him, the same would happen to me as what happened to my mother. Which didn't scare me – at that time I hated my life anyway, what difference would it make? But I think he picked up on my thoughts – I was probably giving it away by my facial expressions or something – and he changed it to he'd hurt the people I loved if I said anything.

And now that I was older and perhaps a little wiser and definitely more stubborn, I would have smashed his face in there and then, but at that age I could practically have someone touch me and I'd break. So I accepted it. I didn't tell my Dad, and every time anybody else was around I had to act like before, meaning just like any normal person would around their uncle, but at the same time having to tolerate my mother's murderer. I hated every second of it. I still do.

And then I was finally able to move my dreamed up self, now the replay of the memory was finished; The Hood had pissed off somewhere now, leaving my mother floating motionless in the sea, and the young me curled up in a bush somewhere, trying to find a way out of all of this – of course, I didn't in that time. Not yet. I decided against going to see my young self in the bush; I already knew what was happening over there – it was me once, after all. Long story short – stayed there most of the day until sunset, first grieving my mother's death, then trying to work a way out of this whole thing – of course, I didn't – and then I was finally found by my Dad, and I told him I just fell over and hurt my knee, which turned out to be broken. Yeah, I knew that bit.

But I wanted to see my brain's attempt to tie up the loose ends I knew about and picture my mother. I wanted to actually _see_ her. I couldn't remember seeing her, only that she had extremely blue eyes, you could almost call them navy eyes. But my brain must've known her. I could remember when studying psychology – babies at one month can only see in black and white and sight is blurred – by about two months they can see colour and make out rough shapes – by six months could remember their mother's faces (I think I got the ages right). I was definitely over six months when she was still alive, so I must've remembered her face somewhere in my brain, even if I couldn't recall it. And I wanted to see her. Even if I didn't remember it, I wanted to _see_ her. I wanted to see my mother again.

I began to move my way through the sapphire waves, biting back the hate of the sea – I had the choice to see myself again like I did every time I had this nightmare but I wanted it to be different this time – and walking towards the red ink in the sea. By the time I got there, the water was coming up to my waist, and I was trying hard not to throw up. And I was standing over right over her corpse. My own mother's corpse. Despite the red inky sea around her, I could see her clearly – she was practically blue from lack of oxygen, and her eyes were frozen open. I suppose she looked a lot like me. If we ignored the facts she had blue eyes and brown hair instead of my green eyes and black hair, we could've been mistaken for each other. I obviously got the length of my hair from her, and the short height. And our faces looked the same, the exact same if you didn't count our eyes. She had bruising around her neck, probably from her asphyxiation, and her neck was bent at an awkward angle, probably where it was broken or bent out of place. The back of her neck was bleeding badly, probably from said break, which explained the red inky blood around her. I could see some sort of mushy tissue, maybe brain tissue, leaking out of the back of her neck and floating in the sea, too. And I could remember loving her to bits. But, like everybody else who I loved in my life, they were taken away. And this was the exact reason when I found a criminal who was trying to get into IR, I always went and stopped it before they had a chance. Because I couldn't risk losing any of my brothers, or anybody in IR for that matter. Not now, not now I've lost all but a few of the people I love. And there's a reason I always used fake names when I could – it seemed that everybody always tried to hurt people I love. And whilst it may be wishful thinking, maybe if they didn't think it was me, they wouldn't get hurt. It's exactly why I separate myself from my brothers so often – if anybody who knew about us knew I was helping IR, I was afraid they'd hurt them, even kill them, to try and make a point to me, like what happened here. I was too scared of this happening to anybody else. So every day I'd hide out on perimeter patrol, or sit in my bedroom making the security system as unbeatable as possible, all so they'd be safe. I hid myself away so they wouldn't be hurt like my mother was here.

And then I suddenly submerged into darkness again. My brain was done tormenting me with that memory. It was getting another one ready to torment me. And it gave me time to reflect on how crap my life became over the period of a few years.

Here's the thing – after seeing this whole nightmare, I can never go back into the water without having flashbacks to this certain part of the dream. I just can't even go near the pool. And I can remember when I first came to the island, the boys threw me in the pool when I was still worried about water – I had just had this dream the night before, bear in mind – and just when I went out against my will in an attempt to make them happy, only to be thrown into the thing I hated to be in after the nightmare for a little bit of 'banter' to them. And without them realising, it tore me apart. I felt like I couldn't breathe, even if I was out the pool. I didn't really even want to swim up to get a breath. Moving became difficult. I just wanted to stay there, not face anyone again, despite the sudden flashbacks I had of my mother's murder for every bloody second I was under water. It turned out Jeff was watching all this, and he knew about me around water after I had this nightmare – he was the only person I ever told, even if I told him by accident. And when he was having words with the boys, I pulled myself to get out of the pool when none of them was watching, and I ran when they weren't watching, and hid in one of the island's caverns, and just sat there, hating myself and not bothering to dry myself off. At that time, freezing seemed like a lovely option. A way I never had to face them again. And I'd never hurt anybody again if I froze. Of course, I didn't freeze. Because I'm still here and I'm not one of those creepy people frozen in an ice block. By the time I could finally be asked to go back, it was half-eleven or something at night. Jeff and the boys had apparently been looking around everywhere to find me (claiming bullshit on that one – didn't hear anybody or anything, I assumed they were watching some Disney film or having even more 'banter' inside), all in an attempt to apologize but obviously it wasn't successful. And this was one of the many times I felt like a tit, because I made them feel bad for me, me who was being a twat and not letting go of this. Everything that was happening in this dream, I never let go of any of it, and I should've just let go by now. But now I had upset the boys. The next days after the whole pool incident I didn't really talk, well, except to Jeff obviously, and Virgil, who didn't help the whole pool thing by the way, I spoke to him a bit since he never brought the whole pool thing up, but other than that I didn't really talk to any of them – I stuck to the shadows, wrapped up in a hoodie under Jeff and Lee Taylor's orders because I'd got mild hypothermia from not drying myself off after the pool incident. I didn't give two shits about the hypothermia – to me it just felt like being in a normal house with low heating at Christmas – but I felt sick, not from the hypothermia but from the sense of being paralysed in the thing that helped kill my mother. And the people I finally let in to my life, the people I trusted, they ended up betraying me without knowing. But still, they didn't murder my mother, so they were better than I was used to. They were better than any other men I'd met, and they were the only remotely nice ones I'd met that weren't dead or hurt, or ditched me when they got the chance. So I just hung on to that. I stayed with them, even if I was still partially scared. And I made sure I didn't endanger their lives, which clearly wasn't enough.

And then suddenly I saw something other than the dark light I was surrounded in. I appeared on a dark unlit street at night, on a road that separated off onto many separate streets. I knew exactly which house to go into – The Hood's old house. And as if I didn't know which house it was, there was only one streetlamp on, and it was right next to the semi-detached house where he lived. I wish I could just walk in the other direction, but it won't happen, because the further away I walk from the area, I will get a worse and worse headache, until I go to the area when it will start to wear away slightly. That, and the only way to wake up is to see what it wants me to see. Ladies and gents, I formally welcome you to the torture from my very own brain!

I rolled my eyes and shoved my hands into my black hoodie, slumping over to the door of the house. This was stage two of about maybe three of this nightmare/night terror. I creaked the door open, biting my lip as I did so. In these nightmares/night terrors, normally I can't touch any objects, especially the people I saw, without getting a searing pain run all the way through me (I only get the pain after walking away from what my brain wanted me to re-see, taking too long to getting to what my brain wanted me to re-see, and touching objects). This door was an exception to that. It was only an exception because I needed to go through it to see what it wanted me to see. I slipped in through the door as soon as the crack in the door was wide enough to slip through, and once I was in, I closed the door shut again. Great, now I trapped myself in here. But I didn't really have a choice – I tried not closing the door once, and when I walked a metre away from it, it slapped shut. I walked down to the kitchen, knowing where to go from experience. But there was something I had never seen from all the times I saw this. Nobody was there. Nobody here? Was I sure? Oh, great, I must be early. Early for my brain slowly torturing me in the only way I'm sensitive! What jolly great fun!

It turned out I wasn't that early. As I shrank back into the corner of the kitchen I saw the young me, slightly older, barely taller and a lot skinnier (as in, virtually skin-and-bones skinny) this time around, hopping over the smashed glass bottles that covered the floor from various bottles of alcohol, over to the counters below where the cups and beakers were kept. The young me somehow managed to climb up onto the work surface using the handles on the cupboards below, then stand on the oven, so the young me could open the cabinet and get a small tumbler out. I could remember this; my Dad got hella sick one day, as in, although I wasn't told because I was that young, I could make an educated guess he had a sort of terminal cancer, and on the day they told me about his death they did cancer scans on me (didn't have cancer if anybody was wondering) and then they left me with the only person that they could find near our house which was – unfortunately – his brother, The Hood. Reason I hate nurses? They were bitches and didn't listen to me when I said I didn't want to stay with them and would rather stay with somebody my Dad recommended when he realised the cancer – or whatever sickness – would kill him (granted, The Hood was on there because he never knew about what he did, but there were a few more people, including Jeff). But no, the little sluts _had_ to dump me with my mother's murderer. Which, as if I didn't hate nurses enough after that, I hated them even more after this. This that was re-playing before my eyes. And on this night in the past I had woken up in the middle of the night, only to get some water since I hadn't had a drink since that morning. I was too afraid to do it whilst he was awake, considering what he did the last time I saw him. I thought he was asleep.

But he wasn't. He was only in the adjacent room, drinking himself to a frenzy.

And I had to re-watch, when the young me was still kneeling on the work surface, turning the tap slowly to make sure it didn't creak as I filled up the small tumbler. But it turned out it didn't matter whether it creaked or not. Well, maybe it would, but it wouldn't change the events that actually happened. Because he had clearly had a lot to drink. A _lot_ to drink. And clearly he wasn't happy with me even having one glass of water. Not even a glass per say, a small tumbler that was barely half-full. But he didn't like it anyway.

I could hear him coming down the corridor, which my young me couldn't hear because – as I can clearly remember – my pulse sounded so loud to me that the bookcase could've fallen over in the lounge and I wouldn't've known so I had no warning of the absolutely pissed-out-of-his-mind man behind me. I wish I did, though. So much would be different if I knew he was behind me. But I didn't and as a result I had to re-watch this. As if I didn't remember this clearly enough as it was!

And then I was frozen with my head watching all this again, like last time – unable to focus on anything but what was going on in front of me.

I saw The Hood suddenly emerge from the hall – it was so oddly quick I would have jumped out of my skin if I hadn't seen this so many times –, staggering all over the place oddly silently before grabbing the young me's shoulder, making the tumbler shatter onto the tiled floor, the tumbler becoming another piece in the collage of already broken shards of glass from several alcohol bottles, and the water seeping into the cracks in the tiles where other types of alcohol had already gotten there. And in one swift drunken movement he shoved me into the corner of the counters, with the young me smashing into the several splinters of glass left abandoned on the floor. Several of the shards cut me; most of the cuts were on my arms, legs and back, but one cut my cheek, causing it to leak with blood quite quickly. And then the young me couldn't move, so I had to re-watch and re-live myself being beaten up by The Hood, being kicked, punched, slapped, verbally abused, you name it. After about ten minutes he finally got bored of beating me up, and left to go back to his booze, but before he left he reminded me that if I did anything that upset him, I'd end up like my mother, as well as the people I loved. So I was left there, bruised and beaten, curled up in a bed of sharp glass shards, whilst The Hood pissed off to continue being a jackass.

And then, once again, I could move. I could move around, walk around, even look around, all whilst my brain was organising stage three of four of this nightmare. And I already knew I couldn't go after my uncle – who, may I point out, was so far up his own arse thanks to the whisky that he may as well be licking his tonsils – so I was kind of forced into going over and seeing my tiny self bleed to near death. Stepping silently over the smashed bottles, I slowly slumped over to the small ball of bruises and blood on the corner that used to be me. I had to see this every time I had this dream. I had to look at myself as I was about a decade ago. I knelt down, like I usually had to so I knew I was looking at a breathing person. Not a dead person. Even though I knew that the person in front of me was alive – because if she wasn't alive, I wouldn't be alive since we're the same person – but I preferred seeing her at an angle where I could tell she – or rather, me, where I could tell that _I_ – was breathing. And then, surely enough, by kneeling down, I could see the little lump beneath me heaving, trying to get as much oxygen as possible without too much pain. It was stupid how bad I looked here. Bruised all over my torso. Practically dripping with blood. I really don't know how, all those years ago when I was this little ball of bruises, I really don't know how I had any courage left in me, or at least, enough courage to get up to the bathroom, clear myself off in the bath – which was agony, in case anyone couldn't guess – and then hide it from the inspectors that came every Tuesday and Friday, with the excuse that I fell over and cut my cheek on the bath to cover up the cut I acquired that night on my face. But I could remember that night I swore to myself never to let that happen again. And so I refused to tolerate it. It was good news, too, in hindsight. If I didn't refuse to accept this I'd be dead by now. Albeit, I stopped trusting anybody and everybody in the end, but I didn't get hurt like this again, so I'll call that a win. But, thanks to this, I never went into this state again, even when I got shot. Now doesn't that say something about how bad I was here?!

And then the darkness went around me again. Right, over half the way through. Thank God. I bloody hated this. Why did this always happen? And before the days when I full-on needed to be able to function? Why did they show me all the events that nearly gave me anxiety or trauma when I really needed anything but a recap on my shit past? I asked myself these questions every time. Asked the same answerless questions every time this happened. Why the heck did this always have to happen? Couldn't I have a break for one in my life when I needed it? Of course I couldn't. But I decided something shortly after I came to the island – I couldn't be happy, that was obvious, but if I couldn't be happy I'd try and make other people happy. Because nobody deserved to be as miserable and depressed as I really was. So I did what I had to do make sure my brothers never went through, well, this. Traumatic nightmares and a half-living existence. I mean, sure, they never saw this in such detail, but still, surely it'd have an effect on them, if they knew their father's murderer – who was one of his worst enemies to begin with – also abused one of their agents before killing her mother. That would not help them, not in the slightest. So I did the best to keep them happy, as happy as possible. I made sure I never interrupted them. Focused on keeping them safe on their missions through the security system. Got them little things they were looking at in shops and slipped them under their bedroom doors. Stayed away from them when they were having fun in an attempt not to ruin it. Play along and pretend to have banter when I was actually out of my comfort zone. Always point out the best bits they did when Colonel Casey asked how they were treating 'outside' members of IR. Laugh at jokes. And the one I focused on the most – keeping every secret I had. I kept all these secrets to stop them from ever having to cope with them as well, tried to shield them and keep the weight off their shoulders. Which was hardest, but not for the reason people may think of which is I found it hardest because I wanted to open up about it – I was quite content with keeping it to myself. The reason I found it hard was because I knew that they knew I was keeping secrets, and I felt like it stressed them out. Actually, I _knew_ it stressed them out – I overheard them talking about it, and they all seemed to hate it, Virgil and John particularly. And that really made me hate myself, because I only did it to make them happy, but clearly it wasn't working. And I wanted to tell them all these secrets to solve it, but then comes that problem of them coping with their father's murderer abusing one of their agents before killing their mother. I couldn't let them cope with either of them. And so I had to effectively be a pain up the arse for all of them. And all because I loved all of them and I couldn't let them be upset. I'd prefer them talk about me and hate me for keeping secrets then have them cope with this. The strange things about love – or what I assume love would be like -, you'd rather have the people you love hate you than have them suffer, even if preventing them for suffering means biting the bullet every day of your life. And that's what I was doing. Protecting them from knowing that The Hood murdered my mother and abused me whenever he was hammered and annoyed at something I did. Because I didn't want them knowing they lost their father to such an uncaring dickhead. And as I finally went out of the darkness, I was about to witness another secret I was - regrettably - keeping.

This time I must have been at _least_ five years older than I was in the last – what should I call them? – Scene of my dream (we all good with that?). And this one I hated myself for not forgetting. If I hated one thing that I never forgot, this was it.

And all I saw was water. Water. Which was fricking great, considering that I still didn't want to be close to it after seeing my mother's death. What made it even better was that I was stranded in the desolate ocean, sitting on a rock in the middle of nowhere. No signs of life, except a few seagulls that kept circling above my head and a dead – I assume it was dead, anyway – jellyfish sitting on a rock nearby. I could guess it was somewhere near Tracy Island, or somewhere else close to the equator; the waves seemed too blue to be anywhere else. Something that you learn after flying for hours non-stop when doing rescues (or in my case, covert ops) – you can tell what the waves look like n different areas. I mean, if 75% of the earth is covered by water, 10% ice, there's a good chance you'd be flying over it when going somewhere. And most of the times you're bored, so you may as well compare the colours, heights, etcetera, etcetera.

And then I heard a rumbling of a plane then – here we go I guess – my head was frozen upwards towards the sky.

It turned out the plane I heard was a remake of a spitfire. Well, modern spitfire. And I know who it belonged to. Jeff. That spitfire was his favourite ship to travel to the mainland with. Thing was, he could have had the world's most secret operation under his belt, but he also was an ex-astronaut, not to mention successful, and he had a lot of paperwork to fill in, most of which coming in from New York, which, of course, required him to fly over. And he couldn't exactly just fly over in Thunderbird One over to New York then be there like 'Sorry I'm late, chaps, could I get a coffee please?' So that's how we inherited the spitfire. Jeff mainly used it, even though it was brought for me and Brains to use once we learnt to fly, so we could go back to the mainland – it was only Brains who ever went back to where he used to live, since he was happy there, compared to me who just annoyed Penny. But this day, Jeff was using the spitfire. And it was the last time a lot of things happened. Last time the spitfire was used. Last time Jeff flew. And more regrettably, last time Jeff ever saw light.

And all because of me. Me and my crappy inheritance of 'family'.

The spitfire had just passed over my head, something that would regularly be loud but, hey, I was dreaming, wasn't I, so I wasn't getting hurt by it in the slightest. If I was surely I'd have tinnitus by now. Jeff was flying north-west (something I also learnt from waves at certain times), not expecting the black ship that was coming in from the distance. Normally here, different senses would come in at different times – first hearing it, then seeing it, all to be finished off with the taste of blood and gunpowder in the air. But clearly my brain perfected it so they all happened at once.

Jeff was still continuing at a steady pace forwards, clearly he didn't see The Hood's ship hurtling towards him at a very high speed for such a loud ship. This wasn't quite the Hub ship or whatever he called it, this was another one. One with missiles. And this whole scenario continued for at least thirty seconds, with Jeff not noticing the black ship speeding up the spitfire's arse. But when he did notice, it was too late. Way too late. Because once he heard it over the noise of the spitfire, a missile had already be shot at the plane. And Jeff couldn't manoeuvre like I usually did – even if he tried, it'd be too late. And in one swift go, there was a crash as the plane was half-engulfed by a cloud of debris. And as he was hurtling towards the sea, he was trying to send one final message across to his sons, something he wouldn't have to do if it wasn't for me turning up and ruining everything:

"Mayday! Mayday! I'm losing altitude and I've last all control!" And then he said something else, which couldn't be made out over the static, but towards the end I could hear him say "I love…". I know where I remembered the message from – we found the static randomly on the security system a few days before I arrested The Hood. Me, Brains, Parker and Grandma listened to it all together, under the decision to avoid the boys and Lady P from hearing it just yet – we didn't want to upset them further. Their happiness was the reason we did it privately – out of us four, we all wanted to hear it separately to make sure it didn't upset anybody, but in the end we just all did it at the same time. And after it, Grandma was half in tears but trying to hold it back and insisting it was nothing – typical Tracy attitude – and Brains didn't speak too much. And all whilst I was trying to swallow down the fact that the one person I decided to trust was killed. Probably killed. And, by the way my brain tied up the loose ends, he'd drowned. I knew this wasn't a fact, but my brain wanted me to think so. It wanted me to think this was real. That my uncle killed the only person I dared to trust, the only family I was left with that I didn't want gone.

And then… huh. Well, that's new. Normally I should have woken up by now, but I was stuck in the darkness as if there was more to the dream. Oh, very funny, brain, you're freaking hilarious tonight, thank you very much! How kind of you to torture me even more! Does everybody else hate their brain? Or is it just me?

When the darkness decided it was a good idea to fade, I finally saw myself standing next to a tall warehouse in the middle of nowhere surrounded by a tall wall and infested by GDF jets. Umm… what? I don't recall ever seeing this. So what the heck is this? Oh wait, I know what this is. Every now and again, my brain will make up one way my brothers might die. And then it will make a grand presentation of a brutal memory-like scene and show it to me after I've seen the things that I'll never forget. Does anybody else's brain do that? Well, I'll never know – I mean, yeah, I studied Psychology when I did Physical Exercise studies, and ended up also studying Psychology because I enjoyed it so much – not to mention that I found out more about PE and the human body than the PE course _actually offered_ – but even through my studies we found no possible way to see life through a way of another person. So I'll never know if anybody else goes through this, seeing their mother's death, followed by a bit of abuse and wrapped in how the only person they trusted for ages was shot out of the sky. And now, apparently, topped with a serving of a potential way one of my brothers will die. Speaking of which, nothing's happening. As I looked around, there was nothing going on, only a few GDF soldiers wandering around. Well, what a thrilling and exiting time I'm having. I leant against the warehouse, deciding if I touched something it might trigger something, staring at the ivy above my head. The ivy had tightly knotted itself against the gaps in the wall, and around the nuts and nails that was holding the supports in. And the ivy didn't have too many poisonous buds on it. I almost fancied climbing it. I was only taken away from the thoughts of climbing up the weed-like plant above me when I saw Thunderbird S flying a short distance over to a sun dish. Thunderbird S? Was I sure I didn't mean one of my brother's ships? No, couldn't be any of their ships. All their ships are painted so brightly that you could spot them from miles away – and 2 and 4 were so vibrant and irregularly-shaped we nicknamed them the Big Green Bug and the Goldfish, Buggy and Fishy for short. But this ship was about as dark as Satan's soul compared to Buggy and Fishy and Co., and it looked too familiar for me. No, it was Shadow indeed.

I watched as I landed the ship on the sun dish and getting out, only to land it like a normal human being would land a normal ship, get the bike out, and land it back vertically. Wow, I was some smart-arse here! And then I watched as the me began running past a few of the several quadjets, before climbing over several wooden crates. And then some form of light fell over her – sorry, _my_ – path, and I bit my lip. Not sure why, I just did. I mean, nothing would happen to me – this was a dream – but I wasn't exactly scared. I think I might have nearly started laughing. But the light turned away, and I continued running up to the warehouse, five metres from where I was watching myself doing all this. And then the dreamed-up me began climbing the ivy. Well, it turned out I'd get to climb that beautiful bunch of ivy after all. I followed shortly after the dreamed-up me, amazed how well my brain was doing this, how high-definition it was and the high-quality considering I was moving around. God, this was _way_ better than the other three. And I followed myself as the dreamed-up me cut across the several beams, before settling next to a window. Oh, lemme guess – I was going to escape through the window. I padded over to the window I was sat next to, seeing if my theory was right. Well, let's put it as, if I was going to end up jumping out this window I'd be watching my suicide. O-k-a-y. Looks like sitting by the window was the square root of fuck all. But anyway, why was the dreamed up me here? Why was I sitting _here_?

"Lieutenant Marcus," I heard somebody say. Okay, I see why I'm sitting here. I walked over and leaned over the support to see Colonel Casey talking to somebody who proved to only remind me of a Bond villain.

"Colonel," I heard somebody else say in an extremely deep voice. Alright, calm down Batman! "The set-up on the coast of Asia was a success. The aquanaut took the bait and we got the scan of the ship. The data's all in the laptop with Lieutenant Carter," Batman-Marcus said. Okay, 1) You fucking touch Gordon – I assume its Gordon, he's an aquanaut – and you're dead, 2) Looks like this new extension to the dream is Gordo's death. Great. I had felt I'd become more attached to him recently – he was the only one who treated me like I was still a human, the only one who was treating me normally. Alan didn't say much, Brains and my other brothers kept pausing before every sentence checking if it'd offend me, and Penny stopped making as many jokes about things. I knew they were trying to help, but in the nicest way possible it wasn't helping. Gordo was the same, though, so I felt myself becoming a little bit more attached to him every day. I mean, granted, it was originally his idea to throw me into the pool when I first came here, but he'd definitely matured since then. And he treated me the exact same, like I always wished would happen. Anyway, back to business. Let's get his 'death' out of the way.

"Okay," Colonel Casey said. Huh. She didn't seem that bothered. And then a girl came out with enough make-up on to melt her face off, and when it does melt, the force of it hitting the floor would cause an earthquake. And she brought out a silver block, which was an extremely old laptop. And then I heard the dreamed-up me moving, looking around on the supports before picking up a shard of metal next to my feet, before lobbing it at Miss Makeup. Sheesh, I mean, yeah, I wasn't fond of her, but that's the other extent! Hey, didn't I remember throwing some metal like this? The shrapnel sliced cleanly into the laptop before bursting into flames, with the makeup brat dropping it a few seconds before she would've been electrocuted. And then the next second, the dreamed up me was sprinting. And whilst I jogged behind her – sorry, me – I kept trying to work out why this was so familiar. Was there a TV show that had this sort of layout? Book? I dunno. By the time I reached the window we had climbed in, the dreamed-up me was airborne, jumping a somewhat long distance to an almost-hovering TBS that had scooped up the bike. And I was wondering if I'd actually make it, but then I caught the glimpse of a glistening bullet soaring through the sky, before it shot the dreamed up me in the side, making me plummet to the ground. Wait, it shot me… I stared down at my side, lifting the hoodie slightly to reveal where the dreamed up me had been shot, an exactly matching bullet-hole in my side.

And that's when it hit me – this wasn't one of my brother's deaths, this was how I got shot! This was why it was all familiar! Why I could remember random things like throwing metal at a lieutenant! This was how I was shot, and it was no accident like they said. No, I was under deliberate fore for protecting the one person who went on with his life entirely the same after I shared my biggest secret. And how the GDF lied to my faces.

.

Finally, I woke up, jumping up like usual. But something wasn't usual. Somebody kept trying to pull me back down. And in the panic, I thought it was The Hood, the person I had seen in the dream several times, the person who had given me the experiences of near trauma and/or anxiety. And in that panic, I turned around and punched the person square in the jaw before sliding myself quickly to the end of the bed. I immediately regretted punching the person. Because it wasn't The Hood. It was just Scott. Of course! He fell asleep next to me, didn't he? And now I punched him, throwing away any chances of us being together, probably. Oh God, I was an idiot. This was the reason I never did the whole love thing. I'd only hurt them. I just sat there, catching my breath, wanting to see if Scott was only but being totally and utterly paralyzed. Scott was now sitting on the edge of the bed, one hand on his jaw where I punched, but still laughing. Laughing?

"Good aim," He said over his laugh, before looking at me, who probably looked like some wild creature. He looked quite concerned, too. "Hey, come here," He whispered, coming up slowly next to me before hugging me. I didn't fight, I didn't have the energy. So I just let him hug me whilst I sat there, still trying to catch my breath, almost enjoying the hug. And now I had a reason to enjoy it.

"Hey, come on, I know," He whispered, and I shook my head against his chest. No, he didn't know. But that was what I wanted. For them not to suffer. For them not to know all this crap, because they had brilliant lives and I couldn't ruin them. And as he gently kissed me on the top of my head, I decided against ever telling them, something I was debating in the hospital. No, I couldn't let them know. After about ten more minutes of hugs, Scott finally suggested that I went and had a shower to calm myself down. I accepted that – I had been wanting to have a shower for at least three days and my hair felt so greasy that I may as well host the next Olympics up there – sorry, you probably didn't need to know that. But as I went into the shower, I felt a tiny bit relieved in the fact that Scott didn't seemed too bothered, and that he didn't hate me after punching him. Maybe this love thing could work without me cocking it up easily. Maybe he'd even understand.

/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/

 **Hello guys! Sorry it took me so long to write this. And sorry for such a dark episode, this was both because I realised I was mentioning Kayo's past a lot without anybody knowing about it and you guys might get lost, but also to raise awareness of what some people go through without people noticing. Now, as said, these events have been adapted around the events of me and my friends, so to stop anybody asking I will mention them below (I have asked permission and my friends agreed that I could say it happened as long as I kept it anonymous, so I did not mention names below):**

 **My friend's mother died in a water-based accident, which was – quite drastically – changed to Kayo's mother's murder.**

 **My friend was left as an orphan after both her parents died from a car crash, which was changed to Kayo's dad dying of cancer to fit in with Kayo and the hate of nurses, which is based upon another friend.**

 **My friend was once abused by her step-dad when drunk, which changed into Kayo's uncle abusing her.**

 **My friend's dad went missing in action in the Army, which was linked in with Jeff's death.**

 **And there we go! This is not for attention before people begin, the whole idea of this is to be careful about people because sometimes they have suffered and 'banter' can be inappropriate and hurtful, but don't go to the other extent because it can be just as worse for some people. This is something we all believe strongly in, treating people as you'd treat anybody else, and treating them like they're an actual human being.**

 **Anyway, as for the next chapters, the rest of the loose ends will be tied up and I promise to try and do this one quicker. Hoped you enjoyed and if you wish to see anything coming up, please tell me and I'll add it in. See you soon :)**


	25. Chapter 25 - Kayo

Chapter 25– Kayo

 _For those of you who chose not to read Chapter 24, I fully respect that. I did promise for anybody who didn't read that I'd leave a brief catch-up here, so here it is. The last chapter gave a quick overview on how Kayo's mother died in a water-based accident, Kayo's dad (or Kyrano) died of terminal cancer, and how the Hood abused her after drinking in the form of a night-terror-like dream. Also, in the dream she re-saw herself being shot, so she is now aware of how she was actually shot. Aaaand that basically sums up the last chapter. Hope you guys enjoy this chapter :)._

I stared at the fluorescent lines on the digital clock sitting on the bedside table. 2:07. Turns out the whole night terror/nightmare/whatever you call it all happened within the period of about one and a half hours – the usual time it took. Which meant I went to bed – again – at half eleven-ish in the evening only to wake up at one in the morning. And then Scott managed to get me to have a shower and get dressed into my vest black vest top and grey shorts again, and then he dried my hair – bless him – before we both called it a night again, with both of us sharing the same bed still. Scott had fallen asleep after he thought I fell asleep. But I didn't fall asleep. I never could after the nightmare. I just sat there, eyes closed, waiting until Scott fell asleep because I didn't want him losing sleep, too. When I was pretending to be asleep, I kept checking by looking at him through my eyelashes and waited for him to go to sleep. It didn't take too long for him to fall asleep – thankfully – but I waited at least another fifteen minutes to make sure he wasn't doing the same as me, pretending to be asleep. But no, it had been nearly forty minutes, if I woke up at one and it took me five to have a shower and fifteen dry my hair, which seemed to want to hang on to every drop of water today. All this equalled to forty minutes. It felt a lot longer than that with nothing to do. I mean, I couldn't move because it'd wake Scott up, and I wasn't sure if the holo-projector was dead or not (and even if it was I was scared I'd wake Scott up by leaning over to pick it up). And even if I could reach it, then what? Virgil put a ban for accessing the security system on the holo-projector in here – proves how well my brother knows me, he probably thought through what I'd do if I was awake and blocked it to try and make me go back to sleep – and I didn't think I could go around and find another one because – as stated – I'd wake Scott up. One things I usually admired but this time hated about the Tracy's – they're smart. Okay, 'hate' was a little harsh, but seriously, they were as smart as hell. And my brothers thought of _everything_. The chances they'd forget something that wasn't immediately important was the chances, in the wonderful words of my brother Virgil, that Gordon would get laid using one of his shitty pick-up lines. Well, not technically brother-sister as Virgil quietly explained to me when he was sorting out the machines to wash out all the drugs in my system, but, hey, we were still brother-sister before we tried to get me legally adopted into the Tracy family (before we tried to get me adopted, I was only staying because Jeff was my only Godparent that passed expectation – which seemed to make sense, considering he already had five sons of his own). So if we were brother-sister then, what stopped it now? Okay, maybe not the same for Scott, purely because… y'know... What we said and did earlier… But other than that, I hoped it would be the same. Since, hey, I kinda had to throw all other chances at life away at a young age. As I had just re-experienced.

I mean, after I arrested The Hood and he was in a temporary prison cell to be questioned, Colonel Casey (and Lila, even though she wasn't meant to) sent a quick text to me saying that if things didn't work out with them knowing about The Hood being my uncle and they wanted me to go, whether it was that day or ten years from now, then I could always get a job at the GDF doing undercover operations, sting operations, and all that jazz as a secret agent, and I'd also be supplied with my own furnished little cottage – I had already looked at it and slightly fallen in love with it – and it was on the same street as Lila and Alfie's new house where they would now primarily raise Christopher and Evangeline, or rather Chris and Evie, and it was located in Bracknell (a place in Berkshire in England; the reason the cottage was reserved was for a safe house for anybody under threats) and it was close to the town centre The Lexicon. And that if I accepted the job I'd not only get this house but I'd be employed three 'stages' higher than most people that were employed into the GDF due to me effectively saving their arses in most of their operations. The job was quite nice, too – not as nice as my job here obviously, but still nice – I'd be able to have my own gun for defence – lovely jubbly stuff – and finally be able to do covert ops and not be sat down spoken to like a four year old and treated like one for the rest of the week – casual dig at both Scott and Colonel Casey – and do covert ops freely as long as I did reports after I did them. I was quite good at writing reports, but I ran out of patience quickly and my attention span was as short as the chances of me stopping doing my covert ops. But other than that, I'd thrown away any other lives I had left. After IR, it was the occasional operation and a fuck tonne of paperwork, and after that it was square one.

But something worried me, too: it was a well-known fact that if you have a group of people knitted up purely by friendship or trust or that bullshit, and then two of them start dating or whatever and it doesn't work out, then it destroys the group. So what happens if I cocked up with Scott? What if I accidentally punched him again and he didn't find it so funny this time? Would it destroy IR? Probably not. Would I get kicked out? Probably. Would I ever get let back in? Nope. Would I still worry about them every single minute of my shitty life? Duh. Okay, yeah, as stated I have the job both Colonel Casey and Lila offered me so I could still sneak in to the security system and check on them, but still. I already cocked up by coming in to IR with a biological link to The Hood, surely I couldn't cock up twice in whatever way that might be, but if I did I'd never be allowed back to the place where I learnt to trust, and got over my psychological fear of men. So, what this effectively meant was, watch every movement I do, don't screw up once unless I wanted to go into the office-like paperwork massacre called the Global Defence Force.

I was interrupted from my thoughts when I heard bleeping and a little blue LED flashing on the holo-projector. Oh, so the projector wasn't dead. That answers one question. But the other question was why the hell it was beeping. Well, let's see if moving _would_ wake Scott up after all. If moving didn't wake him up, surely the beeping would. I was already laying on my side, laying on Scott's shoulder, and the table the projector was on Scott's side of the bed. So, as long as I was careful, I could just stretch an arm over, pick it up, then lay back down all whilst making it seem like the only reason I moved was to make myself comfy in my sleep. Hopefully. I pushed the duvet down slightly, before balancing myself on one elbow and stretching the other carefully over Scott. I had to lean over him quite a bit, to the point where I was literally half-dangling over his chest, but surely enough soon I found my fingers clamped around the tightly-layered 3D-printed plastic of the holo-projector. Great. I slid back down into Scott's half-folded arm where he had originally wrapped it around me but, as he fell further into sleep, had slid off and was resting on the bed. But it turns out I slid down a little quickly. Because he was slowly waking up. I quickly slid the holo-projector under the duvet, before pretending to be asleep.

"Kayo?" I heard him mutter. Shit, I did wake him up. Thankfully, he didn't sound entirely awake, so it shouldn't take as long for him to fall asleep again than it did earlier. I pretended that I had just woken up after he said my name. I mastered that since I started having the nightmares – I didn't want anybody worrying about me, and if I pretended I just woke up, then they wouldn't. But today I was using it to cover up the fact that I was awake and potentially about to open a text sent to Scott (well, if it was I'd close it down obviously, but it still didn't change the concept). "You okay?"

"Yeah, why?" I whispered, looking around as if I couldn't remember falling asleep. I saw all the boys do that when they woke up, so I assumed that was natural.

"Thought I felt you woke up," Scott shrugged and kissed my forehead, "Okay, try and get some sleep okay? Just wake me up if you need me,"

"Okay," I whispered, laying back down. Okay, so my brilliant plan hit a slight snag. But, hey, I'm pretty sure he was still asleep. Or partially asleep, anyway. I'm pretty sure there's a word for that. Not fully conscious? Meh, close enough. I sat there for about another five minutes, making sure not to wake him up, before slowly sitting up. I was glad that this whole shooting thing avoided something – at least the whole thing about my uncle wasn't coming up due to the shooting. They only learnt about him being my uncle at least a week ago, and yet, nothing. I was still waiting for the whole thing where Scott sits me down and treats me like a two-year-old for not telling them sooner. Well, a private one, anyway. After The Hood was taken off the island he effectively forced me to 'finish the conversation' by sitting me down and herding everybody into the Lounge. But maybe that wouldn't happen now. Keyword: _Maybe._

I turned on the holo-projector, quickly turning the brightness down to stop Scott suspecting anything. Surely enough, there was at text message. From Lila. Well, that could be for either of us. I pressed the text to open it up, checking over my shoulder that Scott was still asleep. Of course, he was sound, slightly snoring with one arm folded out where I was laying a minute ago, the other hand beneath his hand. He was definitely asleep. Good. I turned around to read a text from Lila.

 _ **Oi kid. You awake yet? Eves keeps having nightmares**_ **.** I smirked. This was definitely directed at me – I was younger than her (not by much but still enough for her to have claimed the privilege of calling me kid) whereas Scott was older than her by quite a bit. And I was glad to know that I wasn't the only ones with the nightmares. And I was glad to know Eves was keeping up one of my best mates. I replied, not really thinking about my answer that much:

 _ **I regret to inform you that Tanusha 'kid' Kyrano had died from the boredom of laying down on an uncomfortable bed that may as well be a coffin and biting loads of shitty chemicals.**_

 _ **Ah, glad to see that you can still text me if you die.**_ I got a reply a few minutes later.

 _ **And I'm glad to see you haven't changed in the time it took me to get shot with a lump of metal that was probably at terminal velocity and to get it mostly healed up.**_

' _ **Course I didn't! I've got a pain up the arse husband who won't budge and a kid throwing up on my lap. What makes you think I could have had the chance to change?**_

 _ **Dunno. So why the bloody hell did you text me at stupid O' clock in the morning?**_

 _ **Fancy doing some covert ops?**_ Ooh, tempting. But I was grounded, wasn't I?

 _ **Sounds nice, but I can't, can I? Make sure to send me a postcard :(**_

 _ **Actually… You just have to be with somebody with a 2055 New Money Grade 5 in Medicine and First Aid, and might I introduce to you a lovely midget that is Grade 7!**_

 _ **Oh you have a twin? Can I meet him/her? Or are you on about your daughter?**_

 _ **Ha ha you little bitch. No, I gotta Grade 7 as of a week ago. So get your ass in here before I go alone.**_ I half-crawled down to the edge of the bed, before swinging my legs up and taking a moment to get used to standing up. It wasn't too bad to for me as it might be for anybody else – since I worked out every day because I had nothing else to do, and the painkillers I was on, it meant that (and here's proof I occasionally listen to people) the muscles around the area could actually support my weight so I could walk around and jog around and potentially run around and only mistake it for a slight cramp in my side. As I quickly slid off my vest top and pulled a shirt on, I sent back a reply,

 _ **Okay, coming over now. Where we meeting?**_

 _ **Lily Hill Woods?**_

 _ **Sure. But where the heck am I meant to park Shadow?**_

 _ **Oh yeah. Okay, new plan – park at GDF base and I'll get the Jeep out and pick you up, ok?**_

 _ **Sure. See you in a bit.**_ I buttoned up my jeans, before silently ripping off a post it note and grabbing a pen. I left Scott a note, saying I'd gone over to Lila because she seemed really upset – I'd just get her to cover that for me later – before folding it in four and slipping it into Scott's outstretched hand. Just in case he woke up into the time it took for me to go check out this thing which I had no idea on. I slipped on my boots before opening the door, making one quick glance back to make sure Scott was still asleep before heading down to suit up.

/~~/~~/~~/~~/~~/~~/~~/~~/~~/~~/~~/~~/

During the flight to the GDF base, I was half-expecting an angry John or Scott to yell at me. But there wasn't. Thankfully. And now I was sitting here, in Thunderbird S, feeling more free then I had for years now I had escaped the impending secret of The Hood as well as the medical air at Tracy Island and constant cuddles (yeah, I've officially getting fed up of cuddles 24/7), playing the snake game for the zillionth time after changing back into my shirt and jeans, for some reason the game was called even though that wasn't its name, sitting at second on the leadership board with my black-and-white polka dot snake and munching on the little noob snakes whilst waiting for Lila. She'd gotten stuck because they were doing border patrols around London due to terrorist attacks being high recently. Well, not terrorists necessarily. But murders were, and it was suspected terrorists. There had been a murder recently in Ecuador, but it was suspected to be a statement murder since the person was left with a threat. So security was freaking out. And even Lila, a Colonel herself, had to be delayed. But she should almost be here now. I had gotten bored of chasing around the little maggots on the game, and decided to curl myself up into a ball, wait for somebody to try and attack me, and then kill them. Which wasn't working, but it's not like I gave many shits. And after at least ten minutes where I dropped on the leader board from second to fourth, I finally heard a car engine behind me. Lila, no doubt. I decided to give my points to a small maggot, give them a piece of luck, so I crashed into the first small snake I found before shutting down anything Thunderbird S could be identified under, and alarms just in case somebody did try and break into my ship, as well as putting it on summoning demand – the usual shit. I got out of the ship, locked the cockpit up, and then made my way over to Lila.

"Open up," I knocked on the passenger-side window of the Jeep, waiting for Lila to finish swapping the disc in her radio.

"Ever heard of please?" Lila joked, putting the CD case away and kicking the door open at the same time.

"Yes I have," I said, sitting down and closing the door, "I just choose not to use it."

"Seatbelt, kid," Lila hissed sliding the car into a start, driving towards the exit and onto the streets. "So how did you get shot, you eegit?"

I debated this for a few seconds. When I was sitting awake I read the report on what the GDF said happened. It said I was let on sight without permission and got caught in a gun fight-off between them and some other guys, and I simply got caught in it. And then, as a result, Penny and I couldn't operate. Oh, I'd forgotten to apologize to her. But if that actually happened, why the hell could I remember differently? Was it just my brain trying to tie up loose ends again? Or did something else happen? Lila seemed to have noticed me debating, "No, I didn't say wreck your brains, I just asked if you knew or not," Lila sighed, going down onto a deserted path, "I just wanted to see if you could clear up the report. It doesn't sound right. They said a gun shoot off, but the only ammunition used was rifle bullets and all of the bullets had codes that belonged to the GDF. And they said guns only. There was a hundred broken leg restraints there as well as gas canisters."

"Really?" I whispered, flicking through the songs on the disc – something I wouldn't normally do without asking but somehow felt natural with Lila. Lila and I were kind of the same in the form of tough backgrounds – I had The Hood being a cunt to me and my family, and Lila had it tough in the form of a car crash killing her parents and 6 siblings. Only her and her older brother lived, with her brother receiving only a few bones cracked, and Lila with everything bad that you could imagine might've happened. Punctured lung, cardiac arrest, internal bleeding, cracked ribs, you name it. She was in a coma for two whole months (and an extra three days, one of the random facts I remembered), and within that time she somehow managed to heal herself up naturally if you excluded the operations. And that, of course, made her life hell. But she was still breathing and still living somehow, like me. And I think the thing that made us get along so naturally was we knew about each other and our difficulties before we met, so we knew there would be no awkwardness like there was when I was trying to tell the boys about The Hood. And other things that helped was that we both have the same dark sense of humour, the type of humour that means we excel at things like Cards Against Humanity (if you don't know the game, well, the title explains it perfectly). And it helped we were both stubborn shits and didn't listen. So all of this, mixed up with a few missions and thousands of threads of texts, helped for us to feel so natural around each other. I finally chose to listen to _See You Again_ , the earliest – and least popular – version by Charlie Puth and Wiz What's-his-name.

"Yeah," Lila continued, "It seems as dodgy as shit itself. So we're checking out the warehouse linked to it, then the actual warehouse again, to see if we can get any leads. Also, I said we'd pick up Lady P on the way there, and I've decided as of now we're picking up some takeaway chips – or fries, whatever you prefer to call 'em – and some drinks for the journey."

"Any reason for _takeaway_ chips?"

"Oh. You do it the British way. And have you not tasted those beauties?" Lila sighed, "Good grief, you need to get your head out of the security systems and into the world, Kayo." 

"And what would I do in 'the world' except punching people and making security systems, exactly?" I rolled my eyes, staring out the window to the street we were driving down with cottages dotted randomly down it.

"Well, for a start, you'd be a brill federal agent." Lila paused, "Speaking of which, before Penny gets in the car… how are things with the boys?"

"Fine," I looked at her, "Why?"

"'Cause there's five of them. I bet you one of them has over reacted about it."

"Lila!" I hissed. Why the hell would she insist that?

"What? They must've for you to shout at me like that!" Lila pulled up at a bus stop, stopped the Jeep then swivelled around to face me. "Now what've they said?"

"They've done nothing." I whispered, looking around hoping Penny would turn up and save me from this conversation.

"Tell me."

"There's nothing to tell that I haven't already told you, Li!"

"Tell me. Tell me or I'm telling Colonel Casey something's up."

"Lila, don't," I whispered, leaning my head against the window, still hoping Penny would come and save my butt. Well, I assume Lila was meant to meet her here. If not I was doomed. "Lila, I don't need this right now. They've been brilliant. Better than I thought they would be, okay? So what the hell do I have to do to make you leave them alone?" I realised afterwards that that could sound a little harsh, but thankfully Lila didn't take it that way.

"Okay, okay. I won't tell Casey. But, seriously, have they been different in any way?" She paused after I gave her a dirty look before continuing, "This isn't official crap, I'm just curious." 

"If a word of this gets through to Casey I'm officially able to beat you up until you can't breathe anymore," I sighed, "Well, they've been quieter recently. Alan's virtually stopped talking to me. And Penny's stopped making so many jokes. Bu, then again, it's only been a few days and I was only really awake for the first day, and they were still adjusting to it then, weren't they?"

"Just give 'em time." Lila said, straightening up suddenly and nodding to a girl walking down the street. And surely enough, it was Penny in a slim designer black hoodie, designer jeans and most of her hair shoved up in a beanie except for her fringe that was still waving around. She was probably dressed in the most informal thing she had, which was _flipping designer clothing that has enough money in its value to feed Asia_. And then there's me, who can't be bothered to get into anything that isn't my scruffy jeans and t-shirts. The two very opposite members of IR, who still get along somehow.

"I say we get her to wear this to her next public thingy." Lila hissed as I slid down and under the dashboard, giving her a wink. It'd been a while since I had an opportunity to prank someone. After about thirty seconds, Lila did like she did for me, kicking the door open for Penny.

"Hey," She said casually, like she had greeted me a few minutes ago. I had to retreat even further back as Penny came in.

"Good evening," Penny got in to the car with her usual grace which I – not surprisingly – lacked. She looked over her shoulder to the back of the Jeep as she put her seatbelt on. "Where's Kayo? I thought you said you had her with you."

"I threw her out the Jeep." Lila said, pausing after seeing the death glare I was giving her, and one from Penny as well probably, "Joking, joking," She sighed, and I wasn't sure which one of us she was addressing. "Scott caught her out when she was trying to sneak out to Thunderbird S. She's getting yelled at now.

"Good!" Penny hissed, and I had to seriously constrain myself against punching her, "She's on bedrest. Coming out on missions isn't going to be good for her. Maybe it'd be easier for them to just break her legs. It'd stop her constantly being a pain up the arse."

"I'll break _your_ legs in a minute," I suddenly snapped, making Penny jump about five foot in the air and Lila almost fall off her seat laughing. "And now you know I'm here," I said as soon as Penny stopped panting. "Can you please let me out?"

"Fine. You're getting in the back though," Penny sighed. "Kayo, you can be a bitch sometimes, you know that?"

" _Sometimes_ is an understatement," Lila smirked as I clambered over to the back seats of the Jeep, giving her a complimentary kick as I went.

"Anyway, how the heck did you get out without Parker dropping you off?" I asked as I clicked my seatbelt in and Lila drove off at quite a speed, which was allowed as this was a no speed-limit street.

"Oh, Parker… Um, yeah…" Penny muttered, digging around in her handbag, "He's just… Ugh."

"Would you like to elaborate on the illiterate noises you're making?" Lila asked, turning down to go on the motorway, one that wasn't being blocked off by security.

"He's just not giving me a moment to myself. Like, every single second he's floating behind me like a lost lamb. He keeps saying that I need someone to protect me. Well, not saying that to my face, but I keep hearing him saying that to others. And, like, when I went to bed, he literally did about fifty spot-checks when I was trying to fall asleep. I think the whole shooting thing scared him," Penny muttered staring out the window.

"So how'd you end up ditching the dodo?" Lila asked, moving into another lane after overtaking a BMW double the size of her – typical Lila move.

"Well, for a start stop quoting _The Lion King_ – yeah, I noticed that one, and you can't blame little Evangeline for that one - and he didn't exactly know I left," Penny sighed, "After he was asleep, I just got changed, left a note on my bed, waited for Bertie to – no Lila, don't gimme that look, the _pug_ – to fall asleep, then I just… Snuck out." She slumped down in the chair, "I feel bad for just leaving a note, though. I wasn't informative in the slightest."

"Don't be," I said, "I did the same."

"Lemme get this straight," Lila glared at me using the mirror above her and Penny, "You managed to launch a bloody aircraft and still not get caught whilst gearing up or launching, and didn't get caught _on the trip here_?" I nodded, and Lila shook her head, "Guuuurllllll,"

"How long do you need to say that word for?" Penny sighed, probably still worried about the Parker situation, "And I thought I was doing well with sneaking out!" Penny sighed, flicking around on the radio.

"Pen, you are doing well. You've learnt how to sneak out without anybody noticing. That's good stuff!"

"Default answer from the back – encouraging the act of disobeying orders." Lila smirked as she went into the right lane of the motorway.

"Nah, but seriously, good job. How's about I teach you how to diss somebody and get away with it next?"

"You do that, Kayo, you get out now," Lila sighed.

"What's wrong with it? I'm just teaching her to be independent."

"You're turning her into a stubborn shit. Scott's not going to be happy with you."

"When is he ever happy with me?" I stared out the window to the rolling fields and the endless amount of hills that Britain somehow seemed to have. "Anyway, dissing. What do ya wanna know about it?"

"Getting somebody to stop being overprotective bastards," Penny gave me one sharp glance then looked back out the window.

"Strong word for you, Pen." I said, getting another sharp glance, "No, no, that's a good thing. You're not sensitive to use... harsher words, let's say. Okay, so let me be Parker, tell me what you'd do right now, okay?" I sat up a bit straighter, then put on my fakest British accent, "Why hello, m'lady, I hate to inform you but you are not sensible to go out or whatever shit I said earlier,"

"Well, first you sound like an Australian trying to do a British accent, and you're making him sound like a twat when he isn't, he's just doing what my father asked him to do," Penny turned around to look at me with a slight grin which soon diminished, "But, I just walk away. Show him that he's being irrational."

"Aaaaaaaaaand that's your mistake," I muttered, before speaking up a bit, "Pen, never walk away. You want him to stop? You show him that he's not getting to you." 

"And what good is that going to do?"

"If you show him it's not getting into you, he'll stop. There's no point in doing something if there's no gain in doing it, is there? If you stand up and actually fight, he might stop."

"Might, Kayo, _might_. And what if he does? Then what do I do?"

"One step at a time, Pen. But just try that to begin with, okay? At least you had a decent Dad who cared about you," I sighed. Yeah, my Dad ditched me – one of the few things that IR knows about my past – and he ditched me just before he died of terminal cancer, the bit of it IR _didn't_ know. Maybe I should feel bad about his death, but I don't, because he had a massive rant at me, saying it was entirely my fault my mother went missing (they didn't know she was dead then, they assumed she was missing). Saying to was because I was a stupid brat who couldn't read emotions, which now I find ironic since I studied so many muscles in the face that I can identify when they're lying by a few twitches of the muscles. I still didn't know how to react about my Dad, but he was like a brother to the boys. So I just said he left me with good intentions. The only one who knew the entire truth was Jeff. Grandma knew the bit about him ditching me with the Hood, though, and she told the boys that, which turned into Parker, Penny and Brains knowing. So they knew the ditching me part. They didn't know the death bit. Jeff said it'd be better if they didn't know. I don't see how, but he's never been wrong about anything, so I didn't and still haven't told them. I knelt down and picked up a white cardboard box down behind Lila's chair, "Lila, why the Hell do you have Cards Against Humanity? What happens if Eves or Chris reads it?"

"Chillax, it only wen in after I finished my shift. It was on discount – only a fiver when it's usually fifteen quid. Wanna play?"

"What kind of a stupid question is that?" Penny asked.

"'Course we do," I opened the box, sorting out the white cards.

/~~/~~/~~/~~/~~/~~/~~/~~/~~/~~/~~/~~/

Two hours of tucking into a massive box of KFC chips and our own drinks, narrowly dodging red lights, driving at the speed limit and four games of Cards Against Humanity (with me holding Lila's cards and whispering it to her so she could choose) brought us to a mostly rotted-down warehouse, surrounded by large iron fences and an ornate iron gate, located in the pits of nowhere. We were quite confident that we were the only form of civilisation that had been there in quite a while. There was still a notice on the gate saying that is was condemned May 2054, and clearly nobody had come back to it. It was odd that nobody did – most people ignore it when their building is condemned and go straight back to it, ignoring the fact that they would more commonly get arrested then get away with it. This was definitely a rare occasion of it being totally ditched, though – the padlock remained on the door, untouched, and the warehouse which was once used to sell plants was now matted thoroughly with weeds and ivy, the window panes covered thickly with algae from the inside with half the panes missing or smashed. It both looked eerie and interesting, but maybe the last bit was just me being me.

"Is this the warehouse Kayo was in?" Penny asked, looking through the iron bars.

"Nope, but it's closely connected. Her one's just over there," Lila nodded across the field to where, in the distance, I could just make out another warehouse, similar to this but with a brick wall instead – I think it was brick anyway. I mean, yeah, I have higher-than-average eyesight, but even I couldn't make it out.

"How about me and Kayo go check out the one where she got shot and you do your stuff here?" Penny suggested. I liked that idea – I wanted to see how much of the warehouse my brain presented correctly in my nightmare / night terror / pain-up-the-bum dream. I mean, if it was all accurate I'm treating myself to doing pranks on all of my brothers. But the chances of that are the chances of me getting so annoyed at Sherbet the pug that I knock him out cold (oh, come on – who can get that annoyed at a pug puppy?).

"Sure. I'll come join you after I get the scans, okay? And Kayo, no getting shot this time," Lila said, as I gave her the middle finger before jogging over to the direction of the warehouse. By the time Penny had caught up with me, I had already gotten to the warehouse, and I was sitting on top of the brick – told you it was brick – fence.

"Was there a reason as to why you sprinted here?" Penny practically wheezed. Penny wasn't so used to long-distance running, whereas I was usually jogging around the hangars or training the boys up in fitness and self-defence when I wasn't doing the security system. Naturally, it made me good at constantly jogging. Not to mention my missions. They helped a lot. I just shrugged, before leaning down and grabbing Penny's hand and helping her up. It turned out my brain was quite accurate – there wasn't any GDF flyers or soldiers now, but there was the crates I remembered, and the warehouse looked identical. I was almost thinking it was some sort of déjà vu. But, of course, it wasn't. It was reality – a warehouse among about five in a desolate, unfertilised field. Oh, yes, there was something else that was different.

There was a mostly dried-up patch of blood, just outside the warehouse door.

And I wasn't sure if it was the faint feeling of déjà vu, or the sudden sight of blood, but suddenly I just felt like throwing up. Well, that's new.

"You okay?" Penny asked me. I didn't even bother to look at her – she has this thing about her where she can work out if something's wrong no matter what. As soon as you look at her you've doomed yourself to have a deep, meaningful conversation with her when she's in mother goose mood. I wasn't risking it. I just hopped down off the wall, and made my way to the warehouse.

The warehouse was also just as I remembered it, except there was more bullets across the floor. I was still trying to work out which one was true – the GDF's theory on a gun shoot-off, or the one I had seen in my night terror thing. I mean, so far it was leaning both ways because in both it involved bullets. Now I just gotta find more evidence, see what's actually been happening. I padded around the warehouse, looking around for anything that proved useful. And Penny was currently doing something that was probably one of my pet peeves – floating around on my tail like a lost lamb. Yeah, it gets annoying very quickly. I had to restrain myself from asking her to stop, because, on every mission she did, she had Parker, didn't she? I don't blame her for feeling a little lost without somebody out. Albeit, she did kind of ask for privacy by sneaking out.

I finally found something that caught my eye – a half-splintered laptop. Which, as well as backing up my theory, might prove a piece of evidence. If the memory chip wasn't damaged, that was. I slowly lifted it out of the crate it was dumped into, studying it carefully with a Lady Penelope literally dangling over my shoulder. The screen was shattered and oozing some sort of liquid which I was careful not to touch, and little shards from where the letter keys were corrupted fell out of the massive gap. But, as shown on top of the laptop, it was the newest Acer laptop that was a non-hologram laptop. And these laptops had their memory chip on the top left of the laptop. Which proved easy – I just had to open a little tray, and bam, I was holding it in the palm of my hand.

"Pen, can I borrow your comms device please?" I asked, looking up at a slightly worried Penelope. She just nodded, digging through her pockets and giving me her hand mirror thingy which doubled as her comms. I slipped open the bottom of its shell, took out the memory card (which was pink – no surprise) and inserted the one from the laptop. If I did this right, it would show the details it had on it. And if my theory on this was right, it would show the details of Thunderbird 4. Well, here goes nothing, I guess. I turned it over, and flicked the top open. There was a quick download, under the title 'Processing new data', and after a few seconds, a series of text showed up:

 _~Type: Submersible_

 _~Name: Thunderbird Four_

 _~Accustomed pilot: Gordon Cooper Tracy_

 _~Weight: N/A_

 _~Defence: 4mm of unknown material (suspected to be steel) covering 15mm of high density alloy of iron, copper, aluminium and polyethylene._

 _~Equipment: Dry tubes designed for evacuations of people and supplies; scanning array; diving jet; missiles – potential threat; medical supplies._

Underneath the text, there was an image of Thunderbird 4, no doubt taken by the GDF. It showed Thunderbird 4 half-beached, with somebody being put behind a temporary prison cell within a GDF van and an extremely stressed Gordon talking to some sort of Bond villain.

"How does this make any sense?" Penny whispered, making me jump slightly. I forgot she was literally so close to being on my shoulder that she would be mistaken for a parrot for a pirate. "This isn't Thunderbird 4, is it?"

"It's definitely Thunderbird 4, and it makes perfect sense." I whispered, taking the memory chip from the laptop out and putting Penny's one back in, "The question is, why didn't they take this chip? Why did they get this information which they apparently wanted and then just leave it here?"

"Wait, how does it make _perfect sense_?" Penny took back her comms, trying to make eye contact which I was refusing. "Do you remember what happened when you were shot?"

"Partially," I said simply. If my theory was right, I remembered it crystal clear. If it wasn't, I didn't remember one thing in the slightest. I slipped the memory chip into my pocket, then began to look around to see if I could find anything else. One little chip wasn't going to help me find out anything. Wouldn't help me prove my version was right. But maybe checking to see if there was any form of recording, maybe CCTV or a voice recording, of that happened that day, now that would be extremely useful. Even if we couldn't identify the people on said recording, it'd put my mind to rest at the least. But it's where I could find the system – if any – was the problem. And I wasn't with any decent gear – I left my suit in my ship and Brains took out anything useful in this situation. Probably under Scott's orders. Well, he _does_ appear to think of everything. Just like his father. All of them were like Jeff. It's why IR worked so well. But it's also why I keep getting caught out on things like that. Annoying, right?

There was another fifteen minutes of us looking around, with Lila joining us after ten minutes, until we found our next lead. The reason it was so hard to find the evidence was because it was hidden in one – dare I say it – convenient stash under a loose floorboard, which we were all sorting through with leather gloves on. It seemed almost too easy to find it. What was up with that?

"Hey, check this out!" Lila lifted up a silver headset, half-fried but looked like it would be used in Virtual Reality. She placed it to one side, before picking up a gun. The gun was half-melted, the left side left with gaping holes from where the metal had melted and dripped off, and the magazine (the part where the bullets are generally kept) was so burnt it literally disintegrated as soon as Lila touched it. I was a little bit more intrigued in what I was holding. It was almost like a locket, with a long rope instead of a chain like most necklaces had nowadays, with an oval shape locket with a code on the back. The locket itself was designed beautifully – it had little gem-like stones beading it like a mosaic, and it almost looked like a sunset image over a sea, with the picture at a diagonal slant. The bottom half was made of beautiful black and navy and dark purple gems, and it almost looked the image was designed as if you were standing over a balcony, so you could just see the fencing, and through the fencing you could see what almost looked like a carpark. On the top three-quarters of this locket, there was a variation of deep, deep reds, dark purples and a cerulean blue, which represented – well, I'm guessing it represented – the sea, and then above it lighter shades of red, orange and a few patches of amber for the sky, and then, in golden gemstones, a sun setting over the blood-red sea. It was utterly beautiful, and the few beams of light that escaped through the iron sheets that the walls were made of illuminated certain aspects of the locket. It was beautiful. And I didn't trust it one inch. Why a _seascape_? Why not something like a _skull?_

"What'cha got there?" Lila nodded at the locket. I shrugged, dangling the locket by the roped chain so Lila could see. She squinted for it at a few seconds, probably debating the same as me, then looked up at me, "Anything in it?"

I clicked the little button it had on the side, then slid a thumbnail between the seams of the locket and lifted it up. Surely enough, as Lila said, there was something in it – a piece of paper, yellowed from age that was folded up into a small piece of paper the size of your nail on your pinky finger. I tipped it out on the palm of my leather glove, then slowly began to unfold it, careful not to tear it. After at least a minute of me unfolding the piece of paper, with both Lila and Penny watching me, I had it fully unfolded and in the palms of my hands. On it, written in fairly bad handwriting, was a series of numbers. Rather odd numbers, too; _204863, 598743._ Huh. Why would somebody need to remember this? PIN number, maybe? No, too long. PINs were only four digits. Or maybe the last two numbers on the first set and the first two made another PIN number, so there was three? No, too complicated. Maybe the code to access something that wasn't a card? Coordinates? They looked like coordinates at the best extent.

"Lila, can I borrow your Satnav please?" I asked. Her Satnav also proved to be a GPS, radio and a fuck tonne of other things. The crap the GDF supplies these days.

"Why exactly?"

"Just, can I borrow it?"

"I guess," Lila shrugged, throwing me the keys. Keys – things I was never trusted with. Unfortunately for me. I sprinted down to the warehouse, closely followed by Lila and Penelope. I shoved the key into the lock on the Jeep, unlocked the door, then climbed in the driver's side and turned the engine on. The multi-purpose GPS/Satnav glowed immediately as I turned the car on, to my fortune. I click the button for entering coordinates, then entered the coordinates. And although they were scarce coordinates, they showed an area of land which was inherited by an old nuclear factory. It had a code, too: A53337965. Huh, that seemed familiar. I stared at the back of the locket, and the production code was the exact code of the locket. Tis couldn't be a coincidence. Somebody left this. And I wanted to find out why. I shifted myself across to the passenger side, nodding at Lila to sit down. And Lila was well educated, and not stupid. She knew what I wanted to do, and she seemed to agree. She lifted her seat forward, nodding for Penny to get behind her, then sat down and drove to the area.

We were going to wrap this up. And hopefully before the boys suspect anything.

/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/

Hello guys. Sorry about the almost week gap, long story short something happened to my aunt so I had to travel down to Cornwall to help her. Unfortunately, she doesn't have Wi-Fi, so that's a bummer meaning I can't upload from her place. Even bigger bummer is that I forgot to bring the memory stick with the next five chapters on. Yeah, not going so good recently :I . So I'm re-writing the chapters, and I've decided instead of doing this as a 20,000 odd word chapter, I'm going to separate it into two chapters through Kayo's (as done here) and Penelope's perspective, to make it a bit more interesting. Now, really observant people will notice that, hey, I've uploaded this without Wi-Fi, how did I do this? Simple answer – I found a lovely little pub/café overlooking the sea, and one day somebody who was probably drunk left the Wi-Fi password written with lipstick on the bathroom mirror, and hey, it works! So as and when I re-write the chapters (or rather, when I can write the chapters between my aunt's usual jobs and/or get to the café, a bit of both) I will post them. Hope you enjoyed, and please tell me if you wish to see anything come up! :D


	26. Chapter 26 - Lady P and Lila

Chapter 26, Part A – Lady Penelope

Do you know what sucks? Being shoved in a car for two hours – which I'm adapted to, as you might guess – but you finally get that thing you've been hoping for when it comes to being in the car – and for me that's sitting in the front for once. But, after finding a box of evidence and in a hole in the floor and a suspicion that the only useful thing in there, among guns and bombs and whatnot, the only useful thing was a little locket. And all because of this suspicion I was shoved into the back. Again. Sure, in FAB1 I didn't get the slightest choice, but now I did, it did sort of suck. But, hey, we had more things to focus on.

We finally pulled up at an abandoned field in Cornwall, which used to be a farm called Efford Down Stables, but shut down all the way back in 2014 or sometime near that. Then they built a warehouse to produce adhesives. And then that got shut down, and now this was linked to Kayo's shooting. Well, if the miniscule chance was actually right. There was a piece of paper inside a locket with numbers that were probably random that were also simple coordinates, and the production code for the locket was the same as the area code. Well, these were the new versions of both area codes and coordinates – the ones originally designed by the French (I think it was the French anyway) who created a new design of coordinates and area code so that their base couldn't be bombed or nuked. But, if Kayo and Lila were right, this would somewhat prove as a link towards what actually happened on the night Kayo decided it'd be a brilliant idea to piss somebody off so much that they felt the need to shoot her.

"So I keep getting this deserted-as-fuck vibe today for all of the three warehouses we've so far visited. Anybody else feeling it?" Lila joked, locking up the GDF Jeep, which was one of the 25 left of this model that wasn't scrap. I could see why there wasn't any more than 25 left – we may as well be driving this warehouse with the quality of it. Unlucky Lila, to be assigned with such a rust-bucket. Thank God she still had her Clio and her new Vauxhall Tundra-Ayres. But these cars were loud, and would no doubt wake up Chris, Lila's son, and then her secret getaway would've been busted. And then there was Kayo and me, who went to the other extreme and didn't tell anyone – we both just left a note in case anybody woke up and started worrying.

"I'm getting that deserted feeling too," Kayo sighed, walking a few feet ahead of me and Lila, "But let's hope that's a good thing, hey? Might be easier to get evidence if we don't have people on our tails all the time."

"Touché," Lia sighed, jogging to catch up with Kayo. Here's a weird habit Kayo had seemed to develop since she told us about The Hood being her uncle: she would walk at the speed of jogging. Power walking, if you will. Or maybe it was after the shooting? We learnt about her being The Hood's niece one day, next few days we had a break from stuff and gave her a bit of space whilst also trying to make her feel as at home as we could when she wasn't helping the GDF by taking a post on their security system – most of us failed at trying to make her feel at home, unsurprisingly it was Virgil who had to take over that department, and the only way he could think of helping was a pint tub of cookie dough ice cream, a can of Pepsi each and watching _Zootropolis_ and _Finding Dory_ again – and then day after the idiot got herself hospitalised. So we couldn't really tell if these habits were because of the secret she told us or the shooting. So let's assume this happened after the shooting, because I'd probably get murdered for insisting the other possible cause. I sighed, before jogging to catch up with both the girls, who were focusing on busting an electronic locking system, with Lila pressing several tiny buttons and Kayo shoving something that looked like an unfolded paperclip into a grid. Yeah, I'm not the greatest with technology. The only area of technology I'd say I'm good at is biometric scanners – and that's only because the only part of science I liked in my private school was biology, and nowadays microscopes aren't commonly used. Scanning cells and pathogens and biological structures are done with – guess what? – Biometric scanners. But even the biometric scanners at bloody private schools are a bloody nuisance. I feel sorry for people at public schools and academies. And we all learnt at our private school the functions of a biometric scanner and how to fix or alter it. That's the extent of my technology usage. My job was the more social and socially intellectual part of IR crime-related 'jobs' (which effectively means shoving a recorder on my bra or somewhere that won't get checked and recording my conversations for evidence). Kayo dealt with the perhaps more hostile side of the 'jobs'. And let me tell you – they're bloody harder than they look. Cock up once and it's either you that's dead/badly injured or other people in IR who are dead/badly injured. That or left suffering. And I don't think any of the boys understand that. The only ones who have a slight idea is Virgil and John, the perhaps wiser brothers when it comes to the things we deal with. I guess you could count Alan, sort of, because he watches countless kung-fu movies, and constantly kept asking Kayo what she did, so as long as she was being truthful about missions and not giving sarcastic answers to him every time he asked, he may have an idea. I guess Gordon might, too – he occasionally watches the movies with Alan, when he hasn't got a mission and Grandma's scolded him for his pranks, but when he chooses to try and watch a movie Alan keeps pausing it after every five seconds and explaining its name, effects, and other pointless crap that Alan would actually ever use in space or PODS. But that still proved a slight idea.

But the one who's really blind to this whole side is definitely Scott. I mean, yeah, busy with rescues, I get that Scotty, but if you're not going to understand the whole crime side to having a secret business (which I understand might be hard to learn since Jeff never taught the boys in an attempt to keep , at least treat me and Kayo equally over them. Normally, we split missions about 50:50, so I distract or get verbal evidence from the criminal, and Kayo will snoop around and get more concrete evidence and/or shut down said criminal's business (she likes doing that, and she had great fun in shutting down The Hood's businesses, let's say that much). But I think Scott only acknowledges my part as useful. Because whenever I get the chance to do something, nothing bad is ever said to me. Just a rundown. But whenever poor Kayo comes back to the island after doing something even remotely based around this crime and bam! One of two things happen: 1) He will just shout at her before she's even gotten out of Thunderbird S, or 2) He will treat her like she's a two-year-old and be a patronising shit. To be brutally honest, sometimes having a word with her was best. And maybe he was worried about her, I get that, sometimes I'm worried 'bout her too. But I found that every time she went out – that I knew about, anyway – and Scott knew it wasn't perimeter patrol then there would be one of his ever-so-famous words. And this all happened a few months before Jeff's 'accident'. I think I already worked out why this happened – he was taking the stress out with his infamous 'words'. Which probably didn't help Kayo out at all, especially with doing constant downloads on both Tracy Island's and my mansion's security system. I tried to learn to lighten her load, but quite frankly I'm not good at security systems. As said, biometric scanners are the only things I'm good at. So she had two separate security systems that must remain separate in order for them to work (which meant doing everything she did for one security system twice), only to have somebody who was trying to stop what she was happy doing, which was protecting IR, because Scott wanted her to help out with things like rescues. I mean, I wasn't ever there, yeah, but I want to think that if I had a sister she'd be like Kayo. And quite frankly, like most decent people would, I'd want her to be happy. I doubt being treated like she was when she first came to the island made her happy. And that's why I refused to let him see her in hospital. Here's what would happen – she feels shit and she got another one of her migraines, she kept worrying about the security system, she's in pain, and when Scott came in he'd effectively beat her up over it. God, I didn't know how she hasn't punched him yet. I didn't know how _I_ hadn't punched him yet! No, but seriously, he did do a good job as a leader. I mean, he'd never be Jeff, duh, but he was still a good leader. And maybe I was overreacting with this. And as I said, these were only the cases that I was aware of – she could've done thousands of things without me knowing and without being shouted at! And… How the bloody hell did my thoughts about biometric scanners go to casual digs at Scott? God, I wasn't awake yet. The only way I could be awake enough yet to be doing this was with a glass of Caribbean Twist. But, of course, I hadn't. I purely just woke up, snuck out, walked about two miles then started playing Cards against Humanity – great way to start your day – only to be chasing down several warehouses. And so, that is how I got protective of the person who may as well be my sister. Believe me, the amount I had about Brains was also ridiculous.

"Is there a reason you're staring at the plant?" Lila smirked as I finally let go of my psychological debate. Turned out they'd already picked the lock, and Kayo wasn't around so I guess she already went in. "Would you like to keep the plant? It's literally just a bundle of sticks. Come on," Lila nodded to the door.

Turned out the warehouse wasn't so deserted. We were both only standing in the doorway, but we could see, behind a massive pile of crates, some sort of light. Almost looked like a campfire, since the light kept flickering. And voices, but I couldn't make it out.

"Oi," I heard somebody hiss. Turned out it was Kayo, who was perched on another pile of crates that were rush-organised into steps, gesturing for us to follow her. Well, it looks like it is indeed useful sending a little shadow in to find useful things for you. We followed her up the crates that were made into makeshift stairs up on to a warehouse support, which we could all walk across easily one after the other. I'm guessing Kayo made the crate-stairs for us – surely no criminal would know we'd be here, and then make stairs for us. If they did, it'd be a trap, and surely for a trap they'd make it more obvious for us. No, I'll safely assume it was Kayo. And I could see why Kayo chose to show us the beam. It was a perfect place to both watch and listen to what was going on. And I didn't know how to react to what I saw.

In the centre of the warehouse there was a campfire. And twenty metres out from this fire was massive crate walls, at least two metres high. And by the fire, there was three men. One was as hench as fuck itself, another in a suit, and one was in black trackies and a black hoodie. And against one of the walls was… What? Robot probe chargers? And what the bloody hell was in them? They looked like… People? Why were they in probe chargers? And why did they look dead? They were upright, sure, but they looked like they were asleep and forced to stand up. Their heads lolled forwards, arms hanging loosely by their sides. They looked like they were zombies who were asleep. There were ten, no, nine, of them. And they all looked oddly familiar, but their heads were lolled so far down that I couldn't see the faces, not from such a high up position anyway. And recognising the girls – I assume they were girls – was hopeless, because the hair was falling over their faces. All of them were in grey shorts/boxers (couldn't tell which one of the two, couldn't give two shits) and black muscle vests. And that hushed whisper I mentioned earlier – no improvement. Well, slight improvement. I could tell they were talking English. And that was it.

"Is my hearing going crap or can nobody else hear them?" Lila hissed, digging through her pocket, pulling out a little black box. She flicked it open, then picked up a little black counter-like circle. It looked really delicate, but clearly it wasn't. Lila chucked the tiny little counter close to the three people around the campfire, where the little disc rolled before landing on a stray crate near the hench-man's feet. And then she took something else out of the box. They reminded me of Parker's communicator, except with no microphone, just a radio. A one way communicator. And I'll bet two things: one that chip was a microphone, and two, Lila was a clever shit with the idea to throw a microphone down there. Though I kind of knew the latter before now. We all took a little ear set thing, clipped it on then focused on the conversation from our safe spot.

"The probe chargers aren't going to last much longer," One of them said, and I safely assumed it was hench-dude.

"Oh, they'll last until dawn," Another said, and I think it was the man in the suit. The guy in the black tracksuit bottoms and hoodie was remaining silent.

"Oh, sorry. One little sunbeam over the horizon and the probes die two hours early,"

"No, Kane, they will last. I tell you."

"How the bloody hell can they last? You blew the fucking fuse trying to keep them going last week!" The Kane said, pacing back and forth.

"So? I charged them up with a car battery earlier. A li-thi-um bat-ter-y. That will last them, I guarantee you."

"You said that about Agent 79, Dave! Did you see what happened to him? Down to freaking Parkmoore Scrubs. You guaranteeing that is like a bloody curse!" The Kane hissed, and all of our faces fell.

Parkmoore Scrubs?

Agent 79?

Wasn't that what Kayo said The Hood referred himself when he used the voiceprint on Matteo Island? By the look on Kayo's face, it must've been. God, this wasn't what she needed right now. Then again, not like we'd be able to get her out here without a tranquiliser, twenty pairs of hands and several lassos.

Well, it's safe to assume these people were somehow linked to 'Agent 79', at any rate.

"Oh, that was him merely a coincidence! You can't blame me for his stupid niece coming and screwing his plan over. If I see her again, she gets another shot. Hopefully she'll actually hit the grave this time," The Dave said. Oooooh, you made a mistake there, mate!

"Remind me to save a punch for him," Kayo hissed, and I'm guessing she was going to try and walk around on the beam a bit. Unfortunately for her, Lila grabbed her arm before she could move two feet away, probably telling her to stay there for a minute.

"We will do, Kayo, if you actually forget" I smirked, then we all went back to eavesdropping:

"Well, you can't deny that it _did_ happen! So stop being a pain up the arse and find a way to keep them charging!" Kane sighed, screwing up a sheet of paper from a massive wad of paper near the fire and tossing it towards the campfire. It missed by quite a bit, making all of us laugh at his stupid attempt under our breaths. I mean, Kayo had trained in athleticy things during her life and Lila practised every day by throwing paper essays she didn't need or simply rejected in a bin, and even I had gotten good at throwing used teabags and Sherbet's broken toys in the bin. But, even though we were all quite good at throwing things at targets, I'm sure even an average person would laugh at his pitiful attempt. And he was clearly pissed off with his attempt too; he just grunted before pacing back and forth again. Serves him right, too.

"If I put them on a charger would you stop acting like a two year old?"

"I'm not acting like a two-year-old. But yes."

"Fine. And your thoughts on charging them?" The Dave guy turned to look at the guy in the black hoodie who still didn't have a name – that we knew of –, who had gone from standing near the campfire to sitting on a crate, arms crossed with his back to us so – annoyingly – we still couldn't see his face. He shrugged at the question he was asked. He probably wasn't paying attention – something we couldn't afford to do. The Dave sighed before pulled the lid of one of the countess crates and began fumbling through wires within said crate. After a few minutes of me and Kayo keenly watching and listening to see if anything else was done or said and Lila scribbling everything on a notepad, Dave plugged small wires into each probe charger, which were no bigger than the wires you'd charge your tablet with, and after he put one in every probe charger he plugged the ends of the wires he'd just plugged in into a longer, thicker wire. How many wires are really necessary here? Apparently a lot. That or the person wants to make this thing look cool. He dragged the thick wire over to the wall of crates, and kicked out two or three crates from the bottom of the wall that clearly weren't supporting any of the crates above it. After these crates were out the way, he pulled up the wooden floorboard beneath it, which was made of wood where the crates were sitting, unlike the rest of the floor that was presumably brick. Wood just where the crates were? The fuck? I couldn't quite see what was in there necessarily, but I assumed it was a plug of some sort. After he spent a few minutes down in the whole, suddenly the room was filled with the same squawking sound that indicated the chargers were connected to a power source. Well, if it wasn't safe to say I had a headache before now, it's definitely safe to say so now.

"There," Dave sighed, crossing his arms, "Happy now? Now we're prone to the bloody GDF catching us out! Fancy seeing Agent 79 again, do ya?" 

"What, the third of the GDF left? Get real," Kane said, and we all exchanged a glance. Only third left? What was that supposed to mean? "And if anything goes wrong, maybe we'll just reveal how much of the GDF we've gotten control of. Maybe threaten killing off, I dunno, one of the Lieutenants? Maybe a Colonel? Face it, we've already shut down the GDF as it is," Kane continued. What the hell were they on about? I stared at Lila as she got her holo-projector out, immediately diminishing the brightness, before going in to the messaging app. Kayo and I both stared over her shoulder as she typed a message:

 _Send backup to Cornwall. We're watching over three freaks with robot probes. They said they've already gotten control of two thirds of the GDF, and they've just said they'll kill off one of the higher authority if we try to disrupt them. Send in the people who usually helped me and Kayo when we were hunting down The Hood. Co-ords 204863 598743. And don't use any form of air travel – just the cars._

Lila pressed send on the text, shoving back in her pocket and getting her gun out. She wasn't actually debating shooting, was she? I mean, yeah, her job as much as ours was to save people, even though she technically was also employed to kill the bad ones, but she couldn't just go and shoot them without even talking to them… Right?

I was slightly caught off-guard when a pinging sound went off in the room. One of the guys – Dave, I think – went over to one of the many holo-projectors sitting in the corner of the room next to black hoodie guy, pulling out the one that's flashing. He turned it on, reading a few lines of text on there, before opening one of the crates and whipping out a gun.

"Well, it turns out have a few little spies. I told you the bloody electrics would blow it! What do you think of that, then, smarty-pants?" He threw the holo-projector at the Kane so he could read the text, then checked the gun's magazine, "You said we'd kill of a Lieutenant or Colonel. And surely it's make a point, wouldn't it? So go get one of them then!" He grabbed a box of bullets and filled up the gun's ammo as my heart dropped. Was that the text Lila sent to Colonel Casey? Why was her holo-projector here? "And you're doing the killing by the way. If we aren't going to get caught, no harm in _you_ doing it, is there?"

"Fine," Kane hissed, pulling out some of the crates next to the probe charger's socket hole in the crate wall, before ducking to go underneath them.

"What the hell?" Lila hissed, frowning slightly. "Why is Colonel Casey's holo-projector there? And… Are they actually going to kill somebody? From me sending the text?" Lila bit her lip, "We have to stop it. Even if it's a threat. Kayo, do you reckon you could get into their secu- I should've expected that by now," Lila said, and surely enough, Kayo wasn't there. Typical.

"Shadows only hang around for a certain amount of time," I sighed, "But don't worry, nobody's dying today. I'm not letting that happen, and I'm sure Kayo-"

"Shh!" Lila hissed, pointing a finger down to the two holes in the crate wall, one was blocked with a thick wire. The other one, however, was also blocked. But the things blocking this hole was moving. Surely enough, Kane was standing there, one hand holding a gun he must have acquired somewhere along the line, and the other arm behind him. He came through the hole in the wall, then threw the hostage he seemed to have chosen to murder on the floor. I couldn't see the person's face, but all I could see was this person had the same muscle vest and shorts on as the probes did – clearly they did some shopping in Primark – and she had her hands tied behind her back and dark brown hair falling over her face. It also looked like this person must've had some sort of accident recently – there was a scarlet cut down her leg that looked infected from lack of medical care, and her arms and the part of her torso that was showing revealed a bruise. Actually, I'm not even going to call it a bruise – it was more like several bruises that had merged together to make a bruise massacre. God, poor girl. The girl had clearly not eaten much recently, too – I could see each of the bones through her arms, and I could clearly see her rib cage. I kind of became used to seeing somebody's ribcage with Kayo – since she came to the island we could all clearly see her ribcage even through her shirt to this day – but as soon as it was somebody else, I felt squeamish about it. This was no exception. No doubt she'd have malnourishment, not to mention infections, and flesh and bone bruises, and probably low self-esteem. And now I know what my next few weeks will be – supporting the case to get these people back to health and happiness.

But clearly I hadn't seen the worst of it.

"Good choice," The Dave hissed, taking the gun off safety mode.

And it was at that moment the girl looked up to give them a dark look. And then it fully hit me. I knew her. Brown hair. Brown eyes. And even if she wasn't in uniform and her hair wasn't up in its usual bun, I could still recognise her. No doubt.

It was Colonel Casey.

.

.

.

Chapter 26, Part B – Delilah

I had recognised the person the three jackasses brought in as soon as I got a glance of her. But finally being able to see her face made it ten times worse. No, she was at base earlier! She was still at the GDF base when I last checked! How the hell could she get here so fast? She certainly was no speed demon and wouldn't speed on roads so she couldn't've came here by her car; people on public transport were on strike meaning public transport from the distance from base to Cornwall were closed; and she could never have walked here – or flown here (since the jets were under repair) – so quickly. This made no bloody sense. Criminals, when using killings as tactics, typically did lots of kills on lower-ranked people, and as people began to click on to what they were doing, killing more higher-ranked people, and when they totally lost grips of everything they slaughtered the highest-ranked person to convince the public that they were still in control of their shitty plan and still so far up their own arses that they may as well be taking a tour on their anus. Guess which one is accurate? Whoever said the latter of those two – well done, you found your basic human decency when it comes to today's society, considering most facts are now told in the form of rhetorical questions.

"Somebody left you a text," Kane hissed, throwing the holo-projector on the ground in front of her, with the text open on it, "I trust you know who they are," Casey took a few seconds to read the text and who it was from before she started looking around with the same face as a deer that was caught in headlights. I knew why, too – she was worried for me and whoever else I was with. She was worried we'd end up like her.

"Don't you dare touch her," She hissed, trying to make her voice sound as clear as possible through the several browned bruises she had on her neck. I also picked up she only mentioned me, and I worked out why – she wasn't giving away that there was anybody else with me. And I knew there was a reason – I always do these sorts of thing with somebody else, usually Alfie my husband, but this time it was Kayo and the Penny. She probably didn't know it wasn't Alf, but still.

"Oh, we wouldn't," Dave said, so sarcastically you could've skewered a fish with the pure sarcasm, "But I'm sure you'd know that we can't have anybody know about this plan and live for long, don't you?"

"Fuck you," She hissed, and I was slightly shocked she _actually_ swore at somebody. Shocked in a good way, obviously, but still shocked.

"What a lovely compliment," Kane hissed, opening the gun's magazine to check the ammo before closing it and re-enabling the gun. "Would you like them to be your last?" He hissed, pointing the gun at her head.

She was about to say something, but she was interrupted by a slight metallic rattling up on one of the supporting beams.

Shit. Kayo was up somewhere on the beams! Shoot, shoot, shoot! Shh- oh, not shoot like that! Geez, that wasn't even mildly funny considering recent events concerning Kayo and shooting. Lemme rephrase – damnit, damnit, damnit. But seriously – Kayo was up there somewhere, and now they were aware of it! God, if I had to deliver her corpse back to Tracy Island…

"Someone's up there," Kane hissed, pointing the gun at random points in the ceiling.

"No shit, mate. What tipped you off, genius?" Dave snapped, gesturing at the guy in the black hoodie to look at the beams. Well, I thought it was just to look. Apparently not. In a few swift moments, he pounced himself over the massive makeshift wall of crates, and up onto the lowest set of beams supporting the wall. We were two beams up from him, and from his angle, we were not that discreet. Well, he shouldn't spot us, but I still wasn't comfortable. I tugged at Penny's sleeve, gesturing for her to follow me as I slid further along the beam, away from Kayo's makeshift stairs for us, looking around for somewhere to hide. Well, Kane's little minion seemed to be a bit too obsessed with checking the beams over, so surely it'd be best to find a hiding spot on ground. That wasn't the bit that worried me, though. It was getting down here. Like I said, if I had to deliver a corpse to Tracy Island… Well, no answer needed.

I began to study the limited options we had. Crate wall? Nope. Back on the crate-stairs at the other end of this support beam? We'd be seen. By the door? We wouldn't be able to see anything happening. Other beams, alternating to avoid the guy who looked like he was advertising both Sport Directs' Slazenger clothes and the emo population? That'd be extremely difficult with two people. If it was just me or just Penny, maybe, but I wasn't separating even if Kayo had different ideas.

My eyes finally fell on three massive cargo vans all parked behind one of the crate walls. Hmm, they might be useful, if we could perch between the cargo bit and the passenger/driving bit. Yeah, I'm a bit thick with vans and Lorries. I slipped down to the other end of the beam, trusting that Penny didn't do a Kayo and disappeared somewhere behind my back, then climbed down the pillar that was supporting the beams at of the back of the warehouse, using my nails to get extra grip on my leather gloves to make sure I didn't fall and bleed to death or die from my bones fracturing and getting internal cuts.

When I had gotten myself down and helped Penny get down, we both climbed onto the middle van, perching ourselves in the crevice of the cargo van. I decided now would be a good time to get my gun out – I had a permit to shoot if under deliberate threat since I was technically still a federal agent – and gave Penny her own form of self-defence with a tranquilizer gun, since that was shooting them but not technically shooting them, as I explained to a slightly baffled Penelope, it was just a tranquilizer gun that had the effect of Kayo punching them but in a less painful, less hostile way and saved them getting a black eye or broken nose, so she was effectively doing a good deed by knocking them out before Kayo got to them. I also explained that she had minimal chances of using her, but the bit that I didn't tell her was that the reason she wouldn't shoot was because she was only allowed to shoot if she was threatened, and if there was a threat, I'd shoot them there and then, well, as soon as I had recorded proof of the threat, which meant getting the recorder to record stuff, but the recorder was – oops – currently pinned on my bra.

"Right, Pen, don't judge me for this," I muttered, before trying to find the recorder, which had slid onto the bra strap as opposed to being next to the strap. I clicked it, waited for it to vibrate in conformation that it was on, then looked up at a disgusted Penny. I just shrugged, then peered over the top of the van, to see Colonel Casey like we last saw her, still under the threat of this Kane guy who had a gun aimed at her. The Dave guy was in a corner, talking into some sort of mobile or walkie-talkie, and although he was quite far away from my microphone chip, I'm pretty sure he kept saying the letter 'z' quite often. Like, unless he was ordering a zebra from somewhere, I didn't see why he kept on saying z so often. The black hoodie guy was still pondering around the beams. God, I just hoped Kayo got the hint and was avoiding the beams.

"You sent backup, didn't you?" I was finally drawn back to Kane, who still had the gun aimed at Casey's head, "You little shit,"

"How was I meant to send backup exactly?" Casey hissed, trying to keep her voice still despite the bruising coving her whole neck.

"I dunno, maybe some bloody microscope?"

"I assume you mean micro _phone_?" Casey hissed, "And no. You confiscated everything, didn't you?" 

"Don't play smart," Kane kicked her in the back and I had to fight the urge to shoot or punch him. Then he looked up to the beams, watching around for a while, before finally calling up to the guy in the black hoodie and trackies, "Any sign yet?" There was a bit of silence, which I guess was him responding, "Then keep looking. And pick up the pace." Shit, he was going to end up spotting us, wasn't he?

"Wait here," Penny hissed, as she slid down off the van.

"Oi, Penny, what are you doing?" I hissed.

"Chill. Just get on the crate wall, and watch my back, okay? I've gotta plan," She paused, "Have you got a recording device on?"

"Turned it on a while ago," I sighed, taking my gun off safety, loading up the first bullet and curling my finger around the lever, "Just… Keep your distance from the guys, okay? Don't want to end up shooting you,"

"F.A.B"

"Okay, then, go on," I regretted what I was saying, but how else was I meant to get evidence? Once Penny started to climb the crate wall, I slid my hand down the top of my navy button-up shirt, and turned up the detector on the recording device so we'd catch every single little detail that was said. Once Penny was half the way up, I began to climb the crate wall, perching myself behind three or four crates full of God knows what.

"Oi," Dave hissed up to hoodie dude, "Found her yet?"

"No need," Penny finally spoke up, sliding down the crate walls. Everybody's attention was suddenly turned to her. The guy in the black hoodie hopped swiftly down from the beams, then onto the crate wall and rolling skilfully onto the ground where his mates were waiting – show-off. All the guys were looking a little smug and baffled, whereas Casey was just baffled. Baffled and visibly worried.

"Who the bloody hell are you?" One of the guys said – I couldn't see any of their mouths moving but I believe it was Kane.

"Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward," She replied simply. God, she sounded like an absolute tart there, didn't she? But it seemed they recognised her. Which made sense, since she went to a lot of public events to raise awareness of the events.

"Oh. So I assume you're with the other Colonel?" Dave huffed, "Three seconds. Get your mate down here before we shoot her," He nodded to a still baffled Casey.

"But she's not here. How am I meant to get her here in three seconds exactly? We're in Bude. She's in Bracknell. The rough car travel time is four and a half hours. And that's ignoring traffic,"

"Bullshit," Kane spat, "Then why did Delilah send the text?"

Simple. I borrowed her comms," Penny held up my navy holo-projector, and I realised that she'd nicked it off me. Little shit. Actually, I hate Kayo for teaching her how to nick things. "It's quite easy to lose things like my comms when I keep travelling," Penny continued, blatantly lying, "I believe I left my one at Ascot yesterday. Lila simply lent it to me," The guys in the room seemed quite content with that answer, "Now I've answered a few questions for you, why don't you answer a few questions for me? So, let's see, I answered, what, two questions for you so I get two. Okay, first question – why have you got her here?" She nodded at a still baffled Colonel Casey.

"You only answered one," Kane spat.

"Actually, the first was if Lila was with me which is a no, and the second was why Lila sent the text which she didn't send a text, it was me using her comms," Penny shrugged, "Now, my question. Why have you got Colonel Casey here and why the bloody hell have you got her in this state?"

"Oi, we can't tell her this," Dave hissed, walking a bit closer to Kane, taking the gun off him and pointing it at Colonel Casey's back. I'm guessing it was a queue for Kane to do the explaining, if any.

"Well, it's not like we're going to let her leave, what's the harm?" Kane shrugged, and whilst I couldn't see Penny's face I saw Colonel Casey's face go from baffled to pure panic. "Where do you want me to start?"

"The beginning, I guess," Penny said, as I strained forward a bit to see her standing normally, one hand on her hip, not really giving two shits about her current situation. Well. That's new. Either she wasn't giving two shits or she was covering it really well. Normally we can tell when she's nervous because she babbled. But she wasn't babbling now. Good girl.

"Well, I'll hopefully save most of your questions if I tell you the whole thing. Do you remember a man called Jeff Tracy? Went missing a while ago?" Kane asked, and Penny nodded. Well, she should know. If not, I'm sure she'd get five slaps around the head, one from each of his sons. And probably a punch from Kayo. "I'd be surprised if you didn't hear about him," Kane continued, "Famous ex-astronaut, used to own Tracy Tower, yes, he made quite a lot of fame. And apparently he was a close friend of your father's, Lord Creighton-Ward. It was quite a surprise when he finally went from immaculate fame with a mass of income coming in, just to abandon everything to hide away in the remotes of nowhere. And it was quite a surprise he never returned to his profits? And that nothing was ever heard of him again to this magnitude? Why do you think that was?"

"Dunno. Never questioned," Penelope shrugged, "Just assumed that maybe he wanted his kids to leave a normal life after their mother's death and, I dunno, brought them a place to grow up? Used his profits to give them a nice place to learn things?" 

"But a little odd, don't you think? Take them somewhere desolate? Doesn't it seem odd to raise them in public schools then take them away from civilization? Doesn't it seem like they are, per say, hiding something?" Kane said, pacing back and forth, and my heart dropped. Did they know about International Rescue? They knew the Hood, so did he tell these guys about it?

"Well, maybe they were, I dunno, upset about their Lucy's death?" Penny said, before elaborating to Kane that Lucy was Jeff's wife.

"Well, I don't care how many excuses you make up. I have my thoughts and facts on the thought, and I am about to show you how they developed to this, as you wished to know about," He gestured to a – still baffled and worried – Colonel Casey.

"Quite a few years ago was the first rescue that International Rescue got involved with. Like the rest of the population, we were immediately intrigued by the display put on show to save the lives at risk. Such bravery, such determination, such selflessness. As somebody who studies lethal things, I knew that, surely, these things don't come naturally. Surely something must've triggered these responses, something such as, per say, guilt. Guilt of losing somebody. Because why else would they be so willing and selfless, did you ever suppose it was to break even with something? This is what I believed, and for years I kept trying to find out more and more about this team. But clearly, when possessing such amazing craft, they must have some amazing crew supporting them. And this amazing crew made an amazing security system, truly, it took me years to finally bust through it. And the only way I could do that was by pure chance – one second either side of my hacking and I wouldn't've got into it. And I wish I could say I beat one of the strongest security systems, but I would be lying to say that. I only got in when the two youngest members were messing around on the accident scene, which was underwater. They kept moving around so frequently in that little sub and doing so many tricks, so many gags, that they must have accidently knocked the anti-detection system off. At least that is what I believe – I could not see any other way how I could've gotten into the system. But I had to act quicker in my hacking then I ever did before, because they must have realised they knocked it off relatively quickly and turned it back on. But I was a lot quicker than they ever wished; I had gotten into Thunderbird 4's system quicker than the time it takes to log onto any site. After that I learnt the reason why the pilots were cocking around so much was because the main pilot was teaching somebody else how to operate it. What a mistake – why couldn't they have just done it where they kept their ships?

"That was the beginning of me finally finding out the identity of the pilots – they were all Tracy boys. And I wanted to find out so much more about it, and I wish I could've – but, as to be expected with such an extraordinary team, getting past the security system proved the greatest difficulty. Truly, whoever made it must've had some sense of loss and hurt to make such a great security system; you only ever take things to that extreme if you've been hurt enough to learn how to let nobody in. It reflects the person entirely, security systems. But this person must've been really hurt. Even as somebody who's lost everything, clearly the person who made this system was only holding on by protecting everything they have left, including International Rescue. The system was so thorough, so hard to hack, even somebody who had hacked the Bank of London couldn't make it through this security system. And within fifteen hours, I wasn't even in Thunderbird 4's system. This person had removed me from it, and all through likely determination of the security system's creator to keep everything under control. To make sure nothing else was lost.

"Soon it was made clear that there was no way past this security system. So, surely, there had to be another way into it. I only knew five of the members within International Rescue then, and that wasn't enough to get any external family links. You see, if you attack a member's family and tell them that they'll stop hurting the victim under the condition that you get some part of the organisation, now that always works. But yet, nothing could be found. Any shooting at the ships themselves always seemed to fail. But surely there had to be another way in. Knowing that the pilots were all Jeff Tracy's sons, I began to search the Internet high and low, looking for close relatives and friends of Jeff Tracy. After a period of finding the right places to look, it finally brought me to find your little friend here," Kane gestured at Colonel Casey, "As soon as I found out about his wedding to Lucille, I found out the best man who was Captain Lee Taylor – which proved no immediate use – but it was when I found out the head bridesmaid, well, things changed. Lucille clearly became attached to Jeff's friends, so much that he made his best friend head bridesmaid.

"I looked into this a little bit more, and found – using my information that I had written down and saved from Thunderbird 4 – that the GDF and International Rescue had a link of some sort, and more research showed that International Rescue was supported by the GDF. So surely, by taking down the GDF, I would finally be able to reap the benefits of my countless amount of hours devoted to trying to crack down who was in International Rescue. But just like its supported non-profit business, the GDF proved a tough nut to crack. Regardless, the security system was taken down in seconds and I had all the GDF's information within seconds. But none of it was linked to International Rescue. A few more days of research, and I found that it was kept separately, with the only way to access the information I desired was to get the leader of the team to confirm it over. And the only way to do that was to use Colonel Casey's image.

"I had heard of many people who had tried to force her into it through her own flesh and skin, and surely they all failed, so that tactic failed. Around that time, one of our fellow agents, Agent 79, managed to locate the island remotely. I might have been jealous, but seeing what one of the members did to him, well, suddenly my jealously subsided and slowly became pride that I did not take his action. As such, I continued my quest to find a way to get the information I needed. Slowly I came to the decision that there was no way to force her into it, without giving the whole act away. So we decided that we would kidnap Colonel Casey and anybody who began to catch on, replace them to stop anybody else suspecting anything. So came in the human probes.

"Human probes. Ran on lithium rechargeable batteries, these probes are designed to go on for seventy-two hours straight whilst still being within our control. We designed these probes so that we could control them through the use of holo-projectors, and me and my… colleagues, let's call them, we all worked together to collect everything we might need for the probe; the crates in front of you are for helping the connection between the probe and our holo-projector, to your left and right, the parts to create the actual probe and to design the probes to look exactly like the people who we had replaced with probes. From then on, it was just a matter of acting them out. As for the people who had to go home to their families, we made fake letters to send home to the people they were staying with, saying that they had to go to a conference regarding The Hood's arrest. And for work, simple programming for different scenarios. Two of us would juggle the 'regular' people, while one of us – usually me – would operate Colonel Casey, through this probe," He nodded at a probe, who, now I thought about it, was the spitting image of Colonel Casey.

"As for the plan, we planned to slowly change the attitude of the two thirds of the people within the GDF, gradually turning them more menacing. And, supposing that nobody else caught on, we would slowly turn all the members left to the lowest ranks possible, and bring our probes to the highest authority. And then, with the highest lines of authority all on our side, we would more or less force the information I had waited for out of International Rescue. And then, well, I could do whatever I pleased. No doubt I'd get a promotion from The General," Kane paused, as I took note on this General guy, "Impressed by our plan?"

"Not really," Penny sighed, "But, hey, I'm probably not expected to," She paused for a second. "Can I ask another question, though? Just another one before… well, I guess before I end up like this," she nodded at Colonel Casey. 

"Go on then," Kane sighed, looking briefly at Colonel Casey then back at Penelope.

"On a scale of one to ten… how much do you like crates?"

"Um, what?" Kane asked, but it was soon answered. There was some relatively quiet revving, which only grew louder and louder, until at one sudden moment one of the walls collapsed in a massive explosion of wooden crates and one of the walls completely collapsed on top of the squared-off area. Penny had obviously been expecting it – she probably saw Kayo planning it, and so played along to give her time – and Penny was quick on her toes; after she asked Kane sarcastically if he liked crates, she did one of the quickest sprints over to Colonel Casey I'd ever seen, thankfully avoiding getting shot by Dave since he was mesmerised by the revving in the warehouse, and then Penny effectively pulled Colonel Casey up onto a non-damaged crate wall and cutting off the rope that tied her hands behind her back. I was also on the same wall, so I went over to keep guard whilst Penny sorted her out. As for Kayo, well, she was getting her revenge. Turned out the revving we heard was a motorbike she found, not the one from her ship but a different one. Even better – they couldn't identify it was her because she was wearing a black helmet with tinted glass as well as a leather jacket and fingerless gloves. And she was enjoying her new bike. She kept driving into the crates, spraying the contents deliberately at the three guys. The black hoodie guy had avoided the worst of it, and had disappeared from sight. The other two, though, were trapped in the huddle of crates. They obviously weren't that hurt, but still, Kayo was giving them a run for their money. Probably considering what was said earlier. As soon as Penelope had managed to patch up Colonel Casey's bleeding cuts, she shouted down to Kayo to come and give us a hand. Surely enough, she immediately left her attacking to come and help us out. Kayo quickly managed to get up the crate wall, ripping off the helmet she was wearing and using the jacket she acquired to make a sling for Colonel Casey's arm which we thought was broken, and whilst we all helped Colonel Casey to get down the crate wall and to the door, the men must have gotten themselves up.

And they must have been mad. Because, as we all were about thirty metres away from the warehouse door, the warehouse suddenly filled with a sudden beeping. None of us could work out what it was, until it was too late.

It was a bomb.

And within seconds of us finding it out, I heard a bomb go off behind me, and before I knew it we were all catapulted forwards, and as soon as I hit the ground I felt a searing pain run through my body and I was out within seconds.

/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/

Oh God, I haven't posted in a long time, have I? Oops. Sorry guys. Things have been really busy recently and I actually re-did this chapter several times, trying to get the right balance of character's views. But I'm back from my aunt's place and now I can write and do my art freely. I promise to post quicker this time and I will try to work out a day that I can post a chapter every week that is guaranteed (I'm thinking either Monday or Thursday). In regards to whether I will be posting once series 2 comes out, I'm leaving that up to you guys. I mean, I don't know if you want me to just blank out the new episodes and continue with my original plan, or maybe stop this one and start a new fanfic for the new series, or if you want me to tie in the new episodes with this fanfic? Please tell me what you want to happen in terms of series 2, since I don't really know that will be best for you guys! Anyways, hope you guys enjoyed, and if you want to see anything come up, please tell me and I will do my best it fit it in! :D


	27. Chapter 27 - Virgil

Chapter 27 – Virgil

 _Slightly overlapped with Chapter 26_

The night seemed to just drag on forever as after I woke up I was stuck in the realms of not being bothered to move and in the mood for a psychological debate of how I woke up. I originally woke up by a noise that sounded like one of the PODS or another quiet ship launching, but it was probably just the boiler switching heat over like it usually did at around quarter past two in the morning. Still, I couldn't settle my conscious on one of the ships launching. Maybe someone took a POD? I would've heard cluttering whilst the POD was getting set up. Maybe one of my brothers were launching? Nah, the noise was too loud. Maybe Thunderbird S? I mean, as of today it was officially able to fly after the small repairs from me travelling it over here after Kayo was shot as well as updating the engine, even if it wasn't yet tested on whether it could do missions yet, so she could've gone somewhere. Nah, she had an IV line in and I put a diluted version of an anaesthetic, which basically meant, as long as she had it in, she would be asleep and she could wake up if she needed to get a drink or something, but she'd be shortly asleep after that, because I wanted her to actually sleep more than four or five hours like she normally did. Technically, when it comes to medical recovery, sleep is the most important thing because the body's cells can rejuvenate. But Kayo was virtually never asleep, so I had to _make_ her sleep. The only way she'd be awake enough to do something like flying her ship was if she had the IV drip out for more than an hour. Besides, knowing her, I could so much as walk down the corridor and she'd wake up. She's been that much of a light sleeper since she came to the island. At first, I thought she was just maybe worried about one of us coming in since, hey, Dad just took her into a new place with, what, eight, maybe nine, people in that she didn't know. I wouldn't have been surprised back then, but it turned out she just was an extremely light sleeper. That or she was half-nocturnal. And I wanted her to have as much sleep as possible, well, that and for her not to be doing things that'd get her yelled at by Scott. And why would she launch to begin with? But, all in all, it couldn't have been a ship launching, could it?

"Oi, Virge," I almost shat myself when I suddenly heard John's voice over the top of my thoughts. "Virge, what the hell are you doing?" He sounded quite disgusted with me. I didn't blame him, either. I wasn't exactly sitting in bed like most would usually do. I probably looked a little bit like a contortionist. I had my feet resting on the top of my bed's headboard, but unlike most people, I wasn't laying with my head at the end of my bed anymore. Over the last four hours, I somehow went from laying with my feet on the headboard and my head at the end of the bed to still having my feet on the headboard but half-dangling off the bed, with my arms limp on the floor.

"I got bored," I shrugged, sighing, "What's up?"

"Can you get Kayo up? I tried to contact her but she's not replying. I need her to confirm a new update for the security system. I don't think she has intentions of waking up." 

"There's a reason she's not waking up you eegit. I gave her an anaesthetic so she'd actually sleep for more than five off hours in her lifetime." I sighed, straightening myself up and onto the bed so I could stand up, "I'll go wake her up, well, see if I can," I hung up on John, then went out my room. I decided to pick up some painkiller for Kayo since, no doubt, she'd get a sharp pain in her side when she woke up. Well, it could work out one of two ways: she'd either be in agony or she'd be nearest dammit fine. Oh, wait, there's another way it could work out – she'd be in agony but say she felt fine. I place bets on the latter one of the three. I picked up one of the small vials of painkiller I had in the cupboard of the infirmary's desk, used the contents to fill up a syringe, then made my way to Kayo's small medical room. There wasn't originally medical rooms. There were just loads of spare rooms. The rooms were useful when we were younger and International Rescue wasn't as famous as it was now – we could have our mates over for sleepovers for, like, a week and they'd have their own room. Granted, it was only me, Alan, Gordon and occasionally Scott who ever had mates over at that age, but it still proved useful in the thought that we'd all get privacy. But as we all left education and did all extra studying at home, we found we didn't have any mates to invite over. Good thing, too, now IR was as popular as it was. But we all – or rather, Dad and I – decided to make them useful by making them into medical rooms, that would only be used for anybody who was injured but stable enough to do things like walking, and people who were recovering at a stable state. That or wanted privacy. Not to mention, when we requested to take Kayo out of shitty Royal Oakley 'Hospital' and take her into our infirmary, we got it approved because of the medical rooms. I mean, I liked to think it was because of how much I cared for my infirmary and made sure it was top-notch, but to be truthful, it was probably the fact we had separate medical rooms.

After sterilising the needle on the syringe, I went down to the door that would lead to Kayo's medical room, only to notice something weird. The door was closed. I left it ajar. I mean, I could see why it was closed – I thought I heard somebody have a shower, maybe somebody actually did. I place bets on Scott being a dick, saying he'll stay awake watching Kayo so I can get some sleep but then getting up and having a shower when he's sure I'm asleep. I wouldn't be surprised. I was still pissed off with him having a word with Kayo when she didn't need it (well, both Scott and Kayo claim otherwise, but I don't trust it still). But surely a door being closed didn't mean anything, right?

I was rudely mistaken.

When I opened the door, I was first shocked, but it soon subdued into anger. In the medical bed Kayo was meant to be in, there was just Scott laying on the bed, so far asleep that he was snoring his head off. And, not to mention, he left both the IV line that was giving Kayo the anaesthetic and her nasal cannula just dumped on the floor. Not even put away. Just sitting pretty on the floor. The oxygen tank for the cannula – which he was meant to put on her when she was asleep - was empty, and the anaesthetic had now leaked out of the unconnected IV line to create a puddle on the floor. Bloody hell. My brother was a dick. Not only did he unconnected the liquids that was _saving our sister's life_ , and not only did he fall asleep when he said he'd watch Kayo's statistics whilst she was asleep, but then he must've really gotten to Kayo with his stupid words, and it made her feel like she needed to go somewhere else. God, I'd need some restraint to not murder him after this! And if he ended up hurting my little sister…

"Scott!" I snapped, throwing a pillow off the nearby chair at his head. He woke up startled, realising that I was giving him the evils.

"What's up?" He asked too casually for him not to be innocent in this situation. How can I restrain from murdering him?

"Why the bloody hell did you unplug these?" I sighed, shoving the IV line and cannula into their allocated spots, "And there the fuck is Kayo?" Scott just looked confused for a second, before realising that Kayo wasn't there.

"She's gone!" Scott half sighed, half shrieked.

"Really? What tipped you off genius?" I snapped as Scott unfurled some sort of paper in his hand. I couldn't quite read it from my angle, but I could immediately tell that it was Kayo's handwriting. I snatched the paper off him, reading the note.

 _Just gone to see Lila. Won't be long. Kayo._

"Why did you unplug her IV line?" I snapped, throwing the note back at him. Why would she leave? I believe I worked it out – she got so upset from my brother treating her like she was four that she wanted to talk to somebody, and so she went to see Lila. And she probably didn't trust to wake anybody on the island up from seeing Scott's display of sympathy! "That's it," I hissed, "I'm going to be the ones having words with her from now on."

"Why the bloody hell did she leave they island," Scott sat up after reading the note, rubbing his eyes, "God, how dare the little sh-"

"Don't you dare call her that!" I snapped, almost slapping him. First he upsets my sister? Then falls asleep on her when she might have one of her cold, low-temperature lapses? Then takes out the liquid that is supporting her? And then, when she's so upset she wants to talk to someone, he calls her a little shit? The fuck? "How dare you!" I just stormed out, not caring that he was doing, and down to my room. I went straight to the holo-projector calling Lila. No answer. I called her again. No answer. A final third time. No answer. Fuck. Okay, alternative. I called Alfie, Lila's husband, hoping this would work. After a few dials, thankfully Alfie picked up. He looked pretty stressed out, carrying his daughter Evie who was playing with her little dinosaur toy, virtually half asleep.

"Hi, Virgil. What's up?" Alfie smiled wearily, cuddling Evie up to his chest as she began to fall asleep.

"Hi. Do you know where Lila and Kayo are?" I tried to stay calm. At the end of the day, he didn't do one thing wrong. Scott on the other hand… Well…

"Um… No, sorry mate. I think she said they were going to the GDF base, but I was kind of focusing on getting this little one to sleep at the time so I wasn't actually listening." He nodded down to a now mostly-asleep Evie. "I can find out if you want, though. I think Lila still has her recording device on her, and there's a tracker on that. I place my bets that Kayo will be with her, too."

"If you could, that'd be great," I half-smiled as Alfie seemed to open a new tab on the holo-projector he was using to talk to me, typing something into the new tab. "Okay," He sat down, resting Evie on his knees and putting the dinosaur toy in the fold of her arm, "I've got that Lila's in South England, on the outskirts of Devon, and they're near a village… Hang on…" He began to type on the holo-projector. Then I saw his face suddenly drop. "Oh, shit."

"What?" I said, feeling my heart drop even though I had no clue what happened.

"They've been in an explosion," Alfie said, and I felt a pit of panic forming in my stomach.

"I'll launch," I said, standing up from where I was sat on my bed, "Send me the coordinates and I'll be over there with the medical equipment."

"I'll meet you there," Alfie said, "I'll send the coordinates to your 'bird, and if I get there before you I'll do pre-medical checks on both Lila and Kayo, yeah?"

"F.A.B," I said, closing the holo-projector before walking out into the corridor. Scott had just come out Kayo's medical room at the same time. Just grand.

"Where is she?" Scott sighed, "I'll launch Thunderbird One and-"

"No, you won't," I snapped, "You're sorting out the infirmary. Get two beds ready. And get the primary liquids ready," I turned on my heels and down to get changed into my uniform.

/~~/~~/~~/~~/~~/~~/~~/~~/~~/

After about ten minutes, I was changed and got '2 ready for launch. I also check Thunderbird S' hangar – it was gone, and so was Kayo. I spent most of my time getting two medical beds up. Normally getting just one up took less than two minutes. But here, I had to do the second one manually. And, even for me, getting one of those heavy medical beds down is a struggle. But I eventually did it, and just before I was about to lower the 'bird onto the POD when I saw John walking down to Thunderbird 2. Hmm. What was he doing down? I guess I was about to find out. I lowered the platform to enter, and once '2 detected somebody standing on it, I raised it again. Surely enough, a tired John was soon in Thunderbird 2.

"What'cha doing down," I asked, nodding for him to sit down in the co-pilot chair as I lowered 2 onto the POD and sent it into launching procedure.

"Alfie explained everything to me," John shrugged as I sighed, glad he didn't hear Scott's fake version of events. I didn't want to tolerate that bullshit now. Thankfully Alfie saved the day for me. I did appreciate my sister's best mate's husband sometimes. I really did. "So now I'm going to help you," John continued, "If you drive, then there'll be me and Alfie spare, so we can care for the three girls."

"Three?" I squawked, "Who's the third?"

"Lady Penelope," John said, and I sighed, directing '2 up ready for launch. God, not somebody else from International Rescue. Surely not. John sighed with me, too, but I wasn't sure if it was genuine or not, "So, ready to go get our girls back?"

"Sure am," I nodded, then sent Thunderbird 2 into the air and following the coordinates Alfie had sent us.

/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/

Hello guys! Sorry for such a tiny chapter. Just wanted to tell you some things and maybe ask a few more questions. So, let's start with the things I wanted to tell you. One, I will be posting regularly on Mondays now. I may also post on other days too, but if I post on, let's say, a Saturday, please don't be worried if I post on, let's say, the Tuesday, because chances are I haven't finished the next chapter. But, yeah, you can guarantee posts on Monday (it may be Tuesday or Sunday in your area, quick warning). I may not do it this Monday because I have to do a meeting, but, hey, there's still a possibility :) . And next, if you haven't seen it, there is a new teaser trailer for Series 2 of Thunderbirds Are Go out now (Warning, there's a lot to take in at once!). No real link to this fanfic, but I just thought you'd like to know. Finally, I have decided what I want to do in terms of the new series. I have taken the advice of somebody who sent me a message (I will not release their name since I assume they sent me a message to keep their username private), and I will watch the first episode of the new series, and from there I will decide if I will find a way to tie this fanfic into it, or maybe whether I should just keep this as a fanfic after Legacy. Or maybe, if I go with the first one, that I just leave out episodes that I can't tie in. So I think I'll take your advice, thank you to that person, and once the first episode of Series 2 is out and I decide I will let you know what I will do from there on. But thank you to everybody who helped me out. But now, I might need your advice once again.

There are two questions that I want to ask you guys (this won't be a regular thing, don't worry!). One, for the next bit of this story, would you prefer one big, long chapter in Virgil's perspective (by long, I mean, like, nearing twenty-five thousand words and I'm, like two-thirds of the way through) or maybe you'd like normal chapters (as in, 5000-7000 word chapters) but spread over different points of view? Like, using Virgil, Scott, John and maybe Alfie?

And the other one I wanted to ask is that, well, the plot I originally did for my little cousin is nearly done, and if you've been reading these bits over all these chapters, you'll know the only reason why this fanfic exists is so I could write this plot for my little cousin. But the plot's coming to an end, and I was debating finishing fanfics in general. That was until, one night, I sat down and thought about how I would feel if I did stop it. Then I realised how much I actually enjoyed writing a progressing story. And the bit that I think made it even more enjoyable is the fact that there are people, just like me, who love Thunderbirds Are Go, and they are actually enjoying my fanfics. And I never thought I'd be able to give so much happiness out to so many people just through a few thousand words at a time. It was something I thought would be impossible, especially for a girl who has been told all her life that, because she has depression and a pair of lungs that may as well not work and because she can never be confident when she so much as speaks to one person, because of this, I was told I can't do anything better than groom horses to earn money and to do paintings in the corner of her bedroom to help pay the bills. To able to say I've gone over 25 chapters on a fanfic and I'm still going and people are actually enjoying it is, well, amazing. It's amazing how, just through a little hobby I've gotten whilst I'm waiting for my paintings to dry, that I've given so much happiness out to so many people. And it's amazing to see how, suddenly, I've become better at socialising because I've had so much good experience at talking to you guys. And I've decided to continue it, because there's been so many good outcomes for so many people, even if it's just something for people to read in the evening whilst they're waiting for something else to happen. So I've decided to now focus on this as much as I do my paintings.

But I do have a question to ask. I have come up with a new plot, which, depending on how much I decide to write for the end of this plot, may start when the new series come out (whether the new plot and the new series will be linked, as stated, I still don't know yet). But do you want me to continue with this fanfic and have it reach, like, eighty chapters, or would you prefer separate fanfics for separate plots? I mean, the new plot will still link in with this pf course, but it's whether you want me to do this as an extension or a separate fanfic? That's what I need help with.

 _Anyway_ , sorry for having a massive babble, I'll (hopefully) be uploading either a massive chapter or one small chapter Monday. So I hope you guys enjoyed, and please, if you can help me out with these questions or if you want to see anything come up, please let me know! Thank you so much!


	28. Chapter 28 - Virgil

Chapter 28 – Virgil

It must have been about sixty, maybe seventy, minutes that we were flying in silence before John decided to speak to me again, "So why are you pissed with Scott?"

"Because, he's just being a jackass in general," I sighed. I thought we'd have this conversation after he got the third bed up for Penny. Looks like I was right!

"Care to elaborate?"

"Did you not see what he did?" I hissed. Of course he didn't. He only came down to earth, what, an hour ago. How he hasn't stacked it over something stupid yet was a mystery. "Basically, I left Kayo with a nasal cannula since she hates oxygen masks for some reason and an IV line with a diluted down anaesthetic so she'd actually get some rest and hopefully her side would start to heal up and would start to get rid of the artificial tissues that are patching up the bullet holes, yeah? Fair?" I said, and John nodded. Good, one of my brothers knew basic human decency when they see it. "Well, Scott decided, no, she couldn't have either of those, so when she was asleep he took them out. But he didn't just take them out – he left them leaking on the floor. And then, not only that, when I told him to stay awake to see if her temperature drop – and if it did, to quite simply put a thermal blanket over her – he just fell asleep. And not even in his chair. He fell asleep on the bed that Kayo was meant to be in, which was no doubt making Kayo feel awkward. And, as I'm sure you know, Kayo's gone. And I think I already know why – I had a feeling Scott had a word with her earlier, and it looks like I was right. My bets – it ended up upsetting her because she feels crap and having Scott down her throat, and she got so upset or stressed that she had to go see Lila. And then, chances are they were looking on the GDF beacon or something and they found a simple rescue to try and help Kayo and it went wrong and, ta da, they've both been caught in an explosion."

"Well, like you said, that's just your theory," John said, turning in his seat slightly. He looked quite drained already from coming down to earth – but how can I blame him? He's gone from virtually zero gravity to relatively high gravity in a short period of space, not to mention almost immediately after he came down to Earth he get on Thunderbird 2, which now had second-to-highest engine setting (I was saving the top one for when we fly the two – no, three – girls home). "And I spoke to Scott," John continued, "It sounded like Kayo was having some sort of nightmare, so that's why he took the IV line and cannula out. He didn't know if they'd end up hurting her," I grunted. Fine, that explains one – assuming he's not lying. But there's still the two other things I want to hear him make excuses for.

"Explain the other two then," I hissed, looking at where we were now. Over bloody ocean. Useful. Granted, I had the GPS on so I couldn't get lost, but it'd be nice to see some sort of life.

"Okay, I got nothing for those," John looked down, before checking to see if anybody sent us texts. There was three for Scott. Grand. John quickly shut it off to continue talking to me, "Why do you keep going at Scott, though?"

"Because he's being a jackass,"

"You already said that one, Virge. How is be being a jackass, exactly?"

"He just…" I sighed. I could tell him, but saying seemed petty. It sounded like I was a little kid, complaining over virtually nothing.

"There. You can't answer," John smirked. No, I could, I just didn't want to get called a two-year-old. Because once those jokes start you can virtually never escape them. This situation of being pissed at Scott for an entirely good reason but not being allowed to say so? Meh, just agree with John a little, don't talk to Scott when other people are around, and it's sorted. John didn't seem to catch on to me debating, and probably thought it was more me opening up to telling him, "Seriously though, what's getting to you recently?" I just shrugged, not daring to make eye contact. John just sighed at me being uncooperative, "Fine. Another question then – why are you suddenly overprotective over Kayo?"

"What?" I looked at him, caught off guard. I mean, I noticed that, but I thought I was doing a good job at covering that!

"You heard me. And it sounds like I'm getting somewhere with this question," John half-smiled, shrugging, "Why are you suddenly getting overprotective about her?"

"I've always been like this," I lied. I mean, I had always been a little bit more protective since if she was hurt when she was doing her missions – as already proven – chances were she'd be quite badly hurt, not to mention she was the only little sister I really had, but I only became hella protective recently.

"Bullshit," John said. Hmm. Wasn't it amazing how my brother starting swearing as soon as his little AI wasn't around? "I'm just saying," John sat back in his seat normally, "It seems a bit weird you're going hella protective after we learnt about The Hood being her uncle."

"John!" I snapped as he looked at me in slight shock. I wasn't even sure why I shouted it. I just took it as a sensitive subject because I was used to being around her recently. And who's enough of a cunt to bring that up near her? You know what? I can think of somebody who might, seeing their recent… actions.

"There we go," John sounded too proud of himself for his own good. "It's something to do with her being The Hood's niece. And don't try to deny it, kid. You wouldn't've suddenly snapped at me if it wasn't." John had to once again close down the notification that Scott sent us a text to continue talking to me, "You know, no matter who the fuck she's related to, she's still the same Kayo, right?"

"Yeah, I know," I said, "But…"

"But what?"

"You remember when she first came to the island? The day when Dad said he was going to pick up some paperwork and he just came back with Kayo and a few pints of milk, and she literally looked like a bundle of skin and sticks?" I asked, and John just nodded, "Do you think The Hood did that to her?"

"I dunno," John sighed after a moment's debate, "I guess there might be a chance," John turned away from me to look out the window, " _OR_ Kyrano just dumped her and left her to die and she partially starved to utter malnutrition. ," I bit my lip after the suggestion. I wanted to believe that he didn't just leave Kayo after her mother – his wife – went missing, but even Jeff said he did. Well, we were kids, so when we asked why Kyrano wasn't here, he simply told us he had a bit of an argument with somebody and he was calming down. The only way we learnt the truth was by eavesdropping to him having a conversation with Grandma. Well, everybody was eavesdropping except Alan who was asleep. Brutal truth? Well, one day, Gordon and Alan kept pulling pranks on him, and, honestly, we all were being a bit annoying one day. And he wouldn't admit he was getting stressed out even though it was obvious. So Jeff and Scott decided that we wanted to hear him talk to somebody, see if our performance that day was the actual problem. And, as we heard from him talking to Grandma, he did talk to somebody – but not in the way we expected. He just blew off at his daughter, the person who was now our little sister. I wondered what made him change. But he just accused her of things she didn't do, things that were impossible for her to do, and he just stormed out on her.

A few days later, we were eavesdropping again. It turned out she was being transferred to live with somebody that Kyrano had links to. Dad said he would keep fighting to try and keep her here, with us, but at that time she was with her uncle. Dad did not seem keen on it at all – now I knew who he was I didn't blame him – and he kept fighting to keep her with us for ages. Eventually, she did come to the island. But she came as a bundle of bones. At the time, I just assumed her uncle was an okay bloke and from her starving over the three days it took her to be found by the police. I assumed that, even though she was being presumably fed by her uncle, it was just going to be a long-term thing to get her back to normal weight. But it turned out, no, her uncle was enough of a dick to not feed her. It also turned out it was probably this incident that made her naturally skinny. Like, she could eat a whole takeaway, compared to me, where I so much as look at some takeaway chips/fries and I gain 5 pounds. It's quite annoying.

"Hmm," I shrugged. I didn't believe John's theory of it being Kyrano. It was definitely The Hood, if anybody. Kyrano couldn't do that, even seeing him snap at Kayo, he was still too gentle and not spineless enough for that; whereas The Hood, well…

"Anyway, you're diverting yourself away from the subject, kid. You being an overprotective shit?"

"I'm not an overprotective shit," I hissed, checking the ETA. Only a few more minutes. Too right, too, with next to top engines on.

"You are so," John said, blanking out – another – text. "I just can't work out if you're getting protective after her telling us about The Hood or after she decided to go dive into a gun's bullet."

"It's called getting shot, John,"

"I know. But, hey, you answered that pretty quickly," John smirked.

"And?"

"Psychology. When you know you're sensitive about something, you cover it up or correct it pretty damn quick, like you just did,"

"Whatever," I sighed, finally seeing the UK on the GPS system. Only an off few three minutes left.

"And you just did it again," John mock-clapped at me, before going serious again, "It scared you, didn't it?"

"It scared everyone," I sighed. Yeah, it did, I thought I was going to lose her, especially with how long the bullet actually remained in her side, but everyone did. Why was John making it seem like it was _just me_?

"Exactly. So it scared you," I was deliberately not looking at him, "It scared me too. I thought she was going to die, well, that or end up, like, paralysed. EOS was quite scared, too,"

"EOS?" I asked. EOS was scared when she hadn't even spoken to her? Well, that I was aware of, anyway.

"Yeah, EOS. She's getting a bit attached to her. And so are you,"

"Hmm,"

"I take that as a yes," John sighed, "I know you are. Everybody else does. But can you stop beating Scott up for it?"

"I will once he actually listens to what I say in the infirmary."

"Like I said, sounded like Kayo was having some sort of nightmare. Would you have preferred her to have some sort of anaesthetic poisoning?"

"No," I sighed. That was one of the threats of anaesthetics. But the threat of Kayo being a tit and hurting herself because she was up stupid hours of the morning was a little bit more of a concern to me.

"There we go. So please stop snapping at Scott, because he only goes and yells at me. And, at the end of the day, he does care for her as much as you do,"

"Yeah," I sighed. Didn't seem like it, but I'm not in the mood to fight with John. I was getting more anxious about what the girls would be like. Were they all hurt? Lila spent so much time talking to all of us that she may as well be a part of International Rescue, meaning that basically all of IR's females were in that explosion. Were all of them hurt? Probably. What were the chances one of them were badly hurt? What were the chances they all were badly hurt? What were the chances that… "What did Scott want?" I suddenly changed the topic, feeling a pit of dread forming in my stomach.

"He just said to keep him posted about what's going on." John said quickly. I could tell he was hiding something. It was probably just reminding him to 'have a word' with me. We were finally closing in to England – despite it being dark due to the year coming up to Christmas, I could still make out the outlines of the jagged rocks that made up the cliffs of the UK's coastline, and the farmlands that were surrounding the cliffs were somehow perfectly illuminated. I must've been kilometres away and yet I could perfectly see the sheep dotted across the jagged fields. I probably could've seen them clear enough to draw them if I wasn't going so fast, well, that and if I wasn't shitting myself over the girls.

"It should be down here," John pointed down to a warehouse that was quite close to a barn as I angled and parked the ship to land on the flattest area of land near the warehouse, which was a good few metres away from the door. I could already see an old GDF Jeep parked on the dirt path leading to the barn next-door to the warehouse, and a new Vauxhall Tundra-Ayres parked behind it. Alfie probably came in one of them. I place bets on the Vauxhall, since I doubt Alfie would just go ahead and park _in front_ _of a_ _parked car_ in this situation.

We were out of the 'bird a few minutes, with me getting my bag which included the essentials that you'd find in a first aid kit as well as some rubbing alcohol, needle and thread to do quick stitches, empty and tubi-grips (elasticated fabric that could go around most joints to support said joints). And John just got the First Aid kit and a stretcher, since I didn't trust him with anything else, seeing what happened with the vials (oh yeah, I don't forget about anything, _anything,_ that happens in my infirmary). Once we were both on the flat ground – where I had to help John up after he somehow stacked it – we both headed down to the warehouse, with John walking at his own pace under my order and me jogging ahead.

Most people wish there are sights they'll never see. But they fail to wish to never see the worst sights because they think or maybe hope that it will never happen, because they don't want to think it could even possibly happen, even in worst circumstances. I always thought all this was for a good reason. But now, I wish I did hope this didn't happen. Because if I did I'd be in some way prepared.

Alfie had probably saved me from the worst of it from his first aid, but it didn't make it any more appealing. All the girls were out cold, as I suspected. Both Penelope and Lila was in recovery position and didn't look too bad. The ones that looked bad was Kayo and… Was that Colonel Casey? Shit, how bad could this day get? Colonel Casey was laying a small distance away with quite a few bandages around her arms and legs and she was – for some reason – in a vest and shorts when it was eerily cold. Kayo was laying a short distance from Colonel Casey, with a few bandages on her arms. But the bandages on her arms weren't the thing that stood out. It was there was a massive patch of blood on her slightly rolled-up shirt. Clearly the bullet wound opened up again. Shit. Alfie had her head on his lap and he was pinning a dampened muslin cloth on her now bleeding side.

"Virgil!" Alfie hissed as soon as he saw me jogging over.

"Who's the worst?" I asked, although I already knew it'd either be Kayo or Colonel Casey.

"Depends on your judgement. Lila and Penny are fine, just got a few scrapes and bruises. She's the worst in terms of infections and bruising," Alfie nodded at Colonel Casey, "But then Kayo's got the worst injuries from the actual explosion. I think the cut she got when she was shot reopened, because it's bleeding like bloody Vesuvius here. She's also struggling to breathe properly."

"Okay, just keep her head up," I muttered, nodding at Kayo as I went over to check Colonel Casey. She had quite a few bruises, and a lot of cuts that were infected, which led me to believe she'd been like this for a long time. But why? I hadn't seen this amount of bruising on her, and I'd spoken to her recently. I mean, there wasn't an infected cut on her cheek when I spoke to her last, and it looks like it's been here for at least five days, judging from the inflammation around the cut.

"Fuck," I jumped slightly as I suddenly realised that John was standing behind me, looking over the girls in utter horror.

"Take her out on the stretcher first, and put her on a breathing tube when you get into Thunderbird 2 and keep putting pressure on her side." I nodded to Kayo, deciding that whilst Kayo's getting sorted out, I could start trying to stop some of these infections from getting any worse than they already were. I poured out a decent amount of alcohol and kept rubbing them into the cuts, waiting for John and Alfie to sort Kayo out and for one of them to bring back the stretcher. All we really needed on the stretcher was Colonel Casey. I mean, for the others it'd be useful, but if we needed one person it'd definitely be Colonel Casey. God, I wish they'd hurry up. One of them could look after Kayo, and one of them could bring out the _bloody stretcher_ , right? Please tell me that they have that much common sense between them?

"Virgil!" I turned around to see Alfie running down with the stretcher under his arm. Thank God, he and John weren't as thick as two short planks together. "Here," He laid the stretcher down next to Colonel Casey as I pulled her on to it as flat as I could, slinging the rubbing alcohol back in my bag and putting the bag on my shoulder. God, the sooner I got everybody in the infirmary, the better. I just hoped in no way I was too late.

/~~/~~/~~/~~/~~/~~/~~/~~/~~/

Two hours later found me, Alfie and John all sitting on the chairs in the infirmary, looking as dead as ghosts. I was typing up the final medical report on the girls, John was meant to be checking on how EOS was doing in Thunderbird 5 but fell asleep, and Alfie was checking the various recording and tracking chips the girls all had on them plus a few he found around the warehouse. All Alfie saw was a van with stains on its doors driving off in the distance. And, in the time it took me and John – with a little help from Gordon, but as I said, a _little_ help – to patch up the girls, Alfie worked out that the bomb was originally near the girls, not right next to them but close enough for them to get caught, meaning the guys – or girls, let's not limit this to one gender – who did this to them probably got away. Well, Alfie couldn't find anybody else in the mass of debris there was, anyway. He also found out a bit more, but I was currently more focused on the girls.

Penelope and Lila turned out to be okay considering the circumstances. Both of them had slightly bruised ribs and a lot of scrapes and bruises, but otherwise didn't really suffer. Lila also fractured her forearm literally on her wrist as well as regular heavy nosebleed, but I checked her and it wasn't anything to worry about – Alfie said she could get nosebleeds quite easily, and when they came – and this is in Alfie's word entirely –, it was a enactment of Vesuvius exploding, so I wasn't worrying, and I didn't really want to end up getting shot by Lila for cauterising her nose when she didn't want it cauterised. I was thankful these two didn't get hurt, for several reasons. Well, one, I'm glad they were okay because, hey, they were my mates. Two, if both of them ended up as bad as the other two girls, then the infirmary would be positively screwed. Three, Penelope had some charity event in a few days and if anybody found out she was in an explosion then my God social media would not shut up, and Lila had to go back and care for her kids. But they were fine, so that was alright. It was the other two that I was really concerned about.

Colonel Casey was quite bad, but I refuse to believe it was anything to do with the explosions. Clearly she was quite badly beaten up before the explosion. I mean, she had scrapes and bruises like the others, but if I had to give my shits to one of her injuries, it wouldn't be anything she got from the explosion. She broke her arm and got extremely bad bone bruising on her legs, which I had already sorted out. She had bruises all over her body, mostly on her torso. And she had lots of cuts as well. And all but two of the cuts had an infection in them. I had to give her a few different types of antibiotics at once to fight these infections. If we went back a few decades, this would've been dangerous, too dangerous to try. Nowadays, it was still relatively different, but I had new versions of the drugs, the sort made in the latest global war that was used to get the soldiers' various infections gone without the different antibiotics contradicting each other. But now it was being used to stop, y'know, the leader of the GDF from getting serious infections around the major organs. No pressure al all… Heh…

Kayo's side was being a complete and utter bitch to put it delicately. Well, I'm sure she didn't intend for it to be a bitch, but her side was currently being as much as a bitch to me as Kayo usually is to other people. Where she had the Repercussion, the artificially-grown layers of cells had come loose and broken. And this made it even worse than when the bullet hit her side. To describe this in the simplest terms I could, when the bullet shot into her side, it scraped past the major organs and up at an angle up to the lungs thanks to the weaker points in her suit, but when it went through the tissues in the no-organ area, it stopped mid-point in said area. Fine, right? Nope. After said bullet stopped it got a little worse than just where the bullet stopped in terms of damaged layers of tissue. For the layer of tissue above where the bullet stopped that didn't actually have the bullet touch it, that tissue also tore, but not as much as the ones the bullet went through. It was maybe 1/6 less torn than the ones that had a bullet go through them in terms of surface area. And the next layer of tissue was less torn by the layer before that by about 1/6 of the surface area torn. And so you get that chain reaction going until it doesn't tear anymore. But one Repercussion and one explosion later, this chain reaction continues. And the surface area of tearing gets bigger on each layer heading up to the lungs. The chain reaction went a bit further then I first expected, and it ended up puncturing her lung.

For anybody who wasn't following, I'll sum it up in a sentence: tissues kept tearing in a chain reaction from the explosion force and she punctured her lung. The great fun of Repercussions! I had two options – another Repercussion or just stitches. And I made my decision pretty quickly, too. Repercussions could suck on my dick, seeing what they've done. I'm going old school with stitches. Except from her newly-added stitches on her side and her now patched-up lung, she wasn't too bad on scrapes or bruises. Probably because she landed on her side (well, my bets on that anyway). All she had was a tube down her throat because she still seemed to struggle breathing, but that tube made her look about ten times as worse than she actually was. Scott wanted to see her, but I made sure he didn't, claiming that there was a high-infection risk and I didn't want anybody else in there. Yeah, I may – or may not – still be pissed off with him. Whoever works out which one I am, well done, you win the award for basic human judgement…

"Guys," Alfie suddenly said, shaking John's shoulder to wake him up, "I think I've got the basics of what happened,"


	29. Chapter 29 - Alfie

Chapter 29 – Alfie

"Guys," I opened up the whole sheet of my collected data, shaking John's shoulder to wake him up, "I think I've got the basics of that happened," I had worked over the last hour to try and put together everything I had gotten from the various pieces of recording devices from the girls. Originally, I was sitting in Lila next to her bed, but Virgil dragged me away and put me on a chair outside Lila's medical room and told me that sitting over her wouldn't help her in the slightest and he gave me the job of working out roughly what happened after taking off all machinery from the girls. So that's what I did for the last, what, hour, hour and a bit maybe? I called my brother Jason and asked him to look after Chris and Evie, and he was there in ten minutes with his girlfriend to look after the kids, taking over the neighbours who I got to briefly look after them, so even if I wanted to use that as an excuse I couldn't. But now, after having headphones in for at least an hour I made a bit-too-complex sheet on everything I could find and the chances of different scenarios happening. And now I think I had everything I could've gained from the machinery the girls had on them at the time of the explosion.

"Right, here's the layout of the warehouse," I opened up a bird's eye view on the layout of the old warehouse, which actually was just a rectangle with two doors on either side of it and a square-shape in the dead centre of said rectangle. I mean, there was also a square to the side, but that was part of the original stables, a separate stabling house, not part the barn-cum-warehouse.

"Great, what about it?" John asked, still half-asleep.

"Give it time, mate," I sighed, going back to the holo-projector, "The square in the centre was where the original main office was when it became a production warehouse for adhesives. They're called command squares in warehouses nowadays. From the area where the square is, there was the electronics that ultimately controlled the entire warehouse. You can't trigger any electronics unless you trigger it from the electronics linked to this command square."

"Right," Virgil said slowly, "So what about that square to the side?"

"It's not officially attached to the warehouse – the guys probably didn't use it," I shrugged off the idea, "Anyway, the guys seemed to be located here," I pointed at the central command square, "And the girls were all going out this way," I pointed to the door at the bottom of the layout.

"Okay," Virgil said slowly. I wasn't sure if he was following, but I continued anyway.

"I'm guessing they had a simple, small security bomb tethered to the wall on the same wall the exit they were using was on, probably I the corner, so when it went off, it didn't kill them but it did knock them out cold. With enough time for the guys who set off the bomb to get away,"

"So where did the guys go?" John asked, slightly more awake now,

"I don't know yet," I admitted, turning off the holo-projector and putting it to charge since it was on three percent battery, "I got Michael, Lila's biological brother, to go check out the scene." I was deliberately not telling them what I heard on Lila's recording device and Kayo's comms scan. I didn't want to panic them. 

" _Biological_ brother?" John asked, "Why is there a difference from biology when it comes to her brother?"

"John," Virgil hissed at him, before looking back at me, "Sorry. My brother here has no sensitivity when he wakes up,"

"Its fine, he has a right to ask," I shrugged, since it seemed quite a rare thing to happen, in a bad-ish way, "Basically, when Lila was younger, she was in a car crash that killed most of her biological family. All of the people in the car died except her and her brother, Michael. Then one of Lila's uncles adopted her, and another uncle adopted Michael. In the family Lila was adopted into, her uncle had a daughter and a son, meaning she gained an adopted sister and an adopted brother." I sighed, "Wanna know a fun fact? My brother's dating Lila's cousin, or rather, Lila's adopted sister."

"Hmm," Virgil hummed, but I couldn't tell what his reaction was. Personally I was fine – they were happy together for at least a year before he decided to bring his girlfriend, Lila's adopted sister/cousin, over to meet me and Lila (Queue awkward moment of realisation). But, hey, they were happy together, and that was all that mattered at the end of the day. "Anyway," Virgil shrugged, "I've made sure Lila's stable and she's stopped having nosebleeds for now, so you can go in if you want." I nodded, walking down to Lila's room.

I had to give it to Virgil – he made the medical rooms look beautiful, especially considering that they weren't designed to be medical rooms at all. Each room had a double bed on one wall, and either side there was a small bedside table with two draws on. Next to these tables, there was a few basic things – oxygen tanks, different sized oxygen masks, IV holder, you got the jist. All this was against one wall, and on the other wall there was three plastic chairs and a wall-mounted TV, as well as a hologram projector on a coffee table beneath it. The rooms were rectangular, with the door on one of the longer walls near the corner of the room. As you walked in, you were nearest damnit on the wall with the TV, and the shorter-length wall furthest away from you was where the bed was. But, to be fair, it wasn't even far away. If anything, it was more beneficial there. It was more or less against the wall, with the gap between the side of the bed and the wall only about two feet, enough to jam a bedside table in near the top of the bed. And right next to the door of the medical there was a small chest of draws, which was originally for clothes and storage when it was a normal bedroom but had become a place to hold things like vials of medicines and IV bags and whatever other crap Virgil found necessary to keep in a chest of draws instead of his several medical cabinets. Most of the medical rooms followed this pattern, except for two or three of the rooms, which had windows on the walls where the bed was (nearest damnit) against. Both Kayo and Lila were in medical rooms that were linking, and the medical rooms both had windows in (bonus!). Colonel Casey and Penelope were on the beds in the infirmary that were actually designed to be medical beds; Virgil wanted to keep an eye on Colonel Casey's breathing rate, heart rate etc. just because of what a state she was originally, and Penny's temperature was just a little bizarre, going normal then cold then warm then cold then normal again… Kayo only went back into the medical room she was in because everything was set up in there and it would've taken quite a while to set it up in the infirmary. Lila was also in a medical room, but that was purely because she liked privacy in these sorts of things. The others knew that too, hence explaining why she was in there, but they kept teasing that we were going to end up doing the naughty or something, and that we needed a private room. As you'd expect from them.

I slid quietly into her room, seeing her still asleep with an oxygen mask on and an IV line in her hand that was just giving her some water to keep her hydrated – or at least, that's what I was told. Even though all the girls were out cold from the explosion, they all had to be sedated even further. But Lila only had to be lightly sedated, so she should've been awake by now. She should've been awake quite a while ago. But she wasn't awake. She was still asleep. Why hadn't she woken up? Had she woken up but gone promptly back to sleep? I would've known if I wasn't dragged out of her room by somebody who flies a ship that looks like a turtle (I mean, no, not annoyed in the slightest… heh…). I slumped down on one of the plastic chairs, picking up a hologram projector from the seat next to me. May as well do one of my favourite games – find small stories on the news, be the first to comment on them and then be smug that you were first whilst making it look like you were doing really important research. It worked a treat in school, too – they thought you were making really important comments on stories and being really active, when on the tab behind the news you were just playing online games with the rest of the class. Like most kids.

But when I went on the news, it wasn't the small news stories box that caught my eyes.

Taking up most of the hologram screen was a picture of a half-destroyed café, partially on fire. Outside the café there was the remnants of an iron coffee table, mauled and everything but disintegrated. On the top left of the picture, there was the words 'BREAKING NEWS' in bold, red letters. I clicked on it immediately. The title was 'Shopkeeper Killed In Tokyo'. Fuck. What was wrong with people these days? I scrolled down to the main bulk of the story:

"Denali Ascorpi, 37, died last night after his shop was attacked using a bomb, which the GDF say was placed in the skip outside the jewellers. Details are still scarce, but CCTV shows somebody being denied the permission to buy a piece of jewellery that cost roughly (converted) £842 right before the bomb went off. The person who tried to buy the piece of jewellery and left right before the bomb went off has been identified as Fen O'Neale, and the GDF are currently trying to track him down. If you see the man who is on the picture below, please ring the number below and tell us where you last saw him urgently:"

Below the text was a picture of a guy, probably mid-forties, and quite frankly ugly. I'm sorry, there's no other way to say it. He was flat-down ugly. Clumps of his hair in knots, random patches of his hair missing, scars across his face… I mean, some people look okay like this. He doesn't. He just doesn't. Funnily enough, he reminds me of somebody who dealt with things like bombs.

Oh well, it was pointless reading any more of this news article. I was sure I'd find a decent report on this situation somewhere in my emails. It was a regular thing in the GDF – Colonels, Lieutenants and some Admirals would get emails with about fifty to seventy thousand words reports, with the first reports sent to Colonels, then a bit later Lieutenants, and then the few Admirals that the people in the offices decide to include. I was a lieutenant, so I should get mine soon, but if I was that desperate, I could accidentally-on-purpose open up Lila's emails and accidentally-on-purpose read it.

The door clicked open, and I was half-expecting to see one of my dogs (Skye the collie or Ruby the Cocker Spaniel) which is kinda stupid since I'm not at home. But either way, it made me jump. Somehow. But, as suspected, it wasn't the dog. It was just Scott.

"Oh, hey," Scott muttered, looking over at Lila who was still asleep, then looked back at me, "Did I wake you up?"

"Nah, I was just checking the news," I shrugged, straightening up slightly, "Somebody was killed. Tokyo."

"Yeah, I heard about that," Scott sighed. I already knew him – he hated hearing that people were dead. It probably helped him with saving people, with the image that he could prevent said deaths.

"Anyway, what's up?"

"Huh?"

"Why'd you come in here?" I asked.

"Oh, um…" Scott closed the door slightly, "Virgil's kinda watching Kayo's medical room door, the main one, and he hates me at the moment, and…"

"You wanna get through?" I kicked the door open behind me, gesturing to it, "Go see your girlfriend then,"

"Thanks – wait, what?" Scott looked at me a bit startled. Guilty!

"You heard me," I shrugged, going back to the holo-projector.

"She's not… She's not my girlfriend," Scott stammered.

"Mmm hmm," I smirked, "So why the hell do you act differently around her?"

"I don't!"

"Yeah you do," I shut the holo-projector down, "Like, you snap at Alan just for wanting to go out on rescues, but when Kayo punches a guy and gives him a black eye and concussion and brings back a device that could've hacked into the whole world's systems, you just had a small, relatively gentle chat." I shrugged, "Oh, and in case you were wondering, that was a really patronising chat."

"I didn't act differently then," Scott muttered, "I was just making sure she didn't end up giving _me_ a black eye and concussion,"

"You full well know she wouldn't punch you without a legitimate reason. The only way she'd ever do it is for your safety. You know that, mate." I chucked the projector lightly onto the bundle of spare blankets next to Lila's bed, crossing my legs and putting my hands under my chin, elbows on my knees. "You gunna admit it? I won't tell!"

"Sometimes I really hate you," Scott shook his head, walking slowly towards the door.

"Can I take that as a yes? If not I got plenty more points. Yeah, mate, if you thought you were hiding it well, I am here to regret to inform you that you did a crap job, mate,"

"Fine, yeah, well done," Scott shrugged as he stopped in the doorway, "But can you keep it quiet please? For Kayo's sake?"

"Yeah, yeah," I nodded, then paused for a moment, "Scott?"

"Yeah?"

"You said Virgil wasn't going to let you into Kayo's medical room willingly, right?"

"Yeah, he's pissed at me for some reason," 

"In which case, I didn't see you go in," I turned back around as Scott closed the door. I had noticed it relatively quickly. I mean, at first I thought he was just generally lighter with his sister, like most people would. And then I began to notice that Gordon and Alan could pull pranks and get yelled at, but as soon as Kayo did it, suddenly not as bad. Not to mention he kept watching her (okay, I could maybe cut him some slack on that one – she was known for spying on people randomly, but he kept watching her a bit more than average). And then it clicked. And guess who was right! Is that bragging rights I hear coming down the corner? I think it is!

"Does this mean I'm meant to be expecting Kayo telling me she's pregnant?" I heard a voice from the other side of the room and, surely enough, Lila was now on her side, looking like she had a hangover. Bless.

"Lila. Calm the hell down. Scott's only admitted he had a crush on her, not that he's planning to have kids with her. You are literally there like 'Oh, I went to the zoo the other day. Now I'm a koala bear!'" I shook my head, sitting on the end of the bed as she looked around the room, obviously confused.

"Did we order a hotel room last night or something?" Lila muttered, sliding herself up a bit.

"No, love," God, she didn't remember anything, did she?

"Where are the kids?"

"Back home, your brother-in-law's looking after them,"

"Which one?" Lila muttered, picking up the glass of water that Virgil presumably left her.

"The only one, love, my brother? Jason?"

"Oh, that one," Lila sighed, rolling the water around in the cup, "So why am I here? And why the bloody hell do I have this little nasty?" Lila looped the IV line around the IV line she had.

"Leave that 'little nasty' alone or you'll have Virgil down your throat," I said as Lila finally ticked in where she was.

"Fine. What about the first question? How the hell did I get here?"

"I'll show you," I grabbed the holo-projector, "But careful, it's a lot to take in at once,"

/\\\/\\\/\\\/\\\/\\\/\\\/\\\/\\\/\\\/\\\/\\\/\\\/

Hello! Sorry for the massive gap between uploads, first, I kind of wasn't expecting the flu (then again, who does? Like, who plans a date and writes it on their calendar to go and have the flu? Well, maybe some people, but not me!), and now I've gone hyper for some reason :D . Two: This and the next chapter was originally Alfie and then Lila, but I decided it'd be a bit more interesting to do it with another character (I'm not giving it away since, hey, spoilers!) so I had to redo that chapter and patch up this one and whatnot. But anyway, less babbling, hope you enjoyed, and if you want to see anything in either this fanfic or the next one I'll do please post it in the reviews. I'll post – hopefully – on Monday/Tuesday.


	30. Chapter 30 - Kayo

Chapter 30 – Kayo

Do you want to know what's weird? That the small, tiny little atoms that we can't see make up everything in life. Like, did it ever occur to you the thing that you breathe in, the thing that is in your red blood cells, _this thing_ is also in the liquid you drink two litres of each day? Isn't it bizarre to think oxygen (which is naturally a gas) can be changed to a liquid all due to two extra atoms (which are _also_ naturally a gas) joining it? And an even more bizarre thought: isn't it weird that oxygen can enter your lungs perfectly when it's not chemically combined with hydrogen, but as soon as that hydrogen is bonded to the oxygen, suddenly you're drowning? Isn't it weird to think two little atoms can make such a difference?

Anyway, how the hell did I get here? I mean, I kinda guessed by now that I'm laying down in a bed – hard not to know when you're horizontal and have a duvet or something on you – but how the hell did I get _in_ said bed? The last thing I could remember was driving a motorbike around. Maybe it was my little hybrid motorbike/cockpit in Thunderbird S? Nah, one of the cylinders wasn't working properly - I knew because I could feel the vibrations going _up my arse_. I wish I was joking! But how did I get a massive migraine – again – if all I did was drive a motorbike? I'm used to driving them, I can drive most types of bikes and I never get headaches, never mind flipping migraines, and it's not like the sound of the bikes has given me a migraine alone – once again, used to it. What else happened? Ugh, I dunno. Brain hurts too much. You know what I also find weird? Our brain controls everything we do, yet it's still vulnerable to these little bitches that are called migraines and headaches.

Now, big question: should I just pretend this never happened and go back to sleep, or wake up and piss some people off? Well, to be fair, _if_ I get up, Virgil's not going to let me do anything, really – I probably can't even do perimeter patrol! I'd only be limited to, what, the Tracy boys and Brains, maybe MAX (I'm not even going to try Grandma, I don't fancy being snapped at and being a test subject for her latest 'recipe', thank you). And there's only a certain amount that I can piss these people off, and the reason it's so slim is because I have to wait for them to come in the room. Sleep, though? Sleep gooooodddd. Everybody loves a bit of sleep. And sleep seems very appealing. Sleep is a very nice substitute to waking up. Better yet, I'm so good at sleeping I can do it with my eyes closed! But is sleep really my cup of tea when I could be finding out how the Hell I got here since I can't remember? No, no it is not. Well, if I can actually wake up and not black out from pain, that is.

Once I managed to partially open my eyes, I finally became aware that there was a constant beeping as well as a bright light from somewhere. Wait… This better not be a hospital. If this is a hospital I swear that whichever person dragged me here will feel my wrath later. I place bets on it being Virgil. God, he's dying later. He's actually dying. Little shit. And just when I thought I was finally free from Bitch-Faces.

"Decided to wake up, hey?" I heard somebody say. Oh, great. Who's the sarcastic shithead in the room this time round? Sounded like Alan, partially, but he's not _that_ patient. He would've seen me waking up as an excuse to go, run around and get somebody so he can escape back to his videogames or his movies. And I couldn't hear any running. So which one was it then? I turned my head slightly, partially blinded by the stupidly-luminous light, and saw a smear of brown presumably on the sarcastic shithead's head. Oh. It was just Scott.

"Hey," Scott whispered, "You going to stop squinting at me yet?" He clicked something beside me – not like I'd be able to see what he clicked even if I was facing it – and shortly after that bright light went out. Thank god for that. I felt like I was up the sun's bum hole or something. Well, it _looked_ like that, anyway. I'm not sure how I could _feel_ like that. Actually, wait, yes I do. Turned out I was in the medical room – _again_. Or was it again? Maybe I just dreamed the whole motorbike-with-crappy-cylinder thing up? It's not like my brain wasn't capable of making all-too-real 'memories', right? I learnt that the hard way. Besides, everything was still here from when I must've fallen asleep – still in the same medical room, still bundled up in the duvet, and Scott was still here. And I still had a bloody IV line in, along with a few other wires that I couldn't name to save the life of me as well as… I fucking hate my brothers at some points. This is one of those points. I had a freaking oxygen mask on.

"Alright, alright, stop, you'll scratch yourself," Scott took the oxygen mask, something I was attempting to do but I couldn't, probably from the mild anaesthetic. I mean, I was lucky I could still supposedly talk and walk around after having anaesthetic – it was only because I'd had anaesthetic quite a bit over my lifetime. I had a lot of anaesthetic as a kid when Jeff first found me, as well as whenever I got, like, hurt on rescues, and my immune system sort of got used to anaesthetics, so I could do things like talking and walking for some reason, but for the first, like, five minutes after I wake up, I have zero aim. How the hell I hadn't fallen out of the bed yet is a big question!

"I won't scratch myself," I promptly lied.

"Yeah, okay," Scott clipped the oxygen mask onto the machine before kneeling down next to the bed, "How you feeling?"

"Usual, I guess,"

"What do you mean by usual?" 

"Headache. Side's a bit sore. Pissed off for no apparent reason."

"Your side's _just_ a bit sore?"

"Tiny bit more painful. Why?"

"There's quite a big reason why it'd be a 'bit more painful', Kayo,"

"Why?" I repeated, trying to sit up.

"Oi, sit down," I half-slumped down, still glaring at him, waiting for him to answer, "You've got stiches in your side. Which means _no_ sitting up unless we say so, _no_ walking around for the next week minimum."

"I thought I had a bloody Repercussion!"

"Language. And you kind of burst your Repercussion, remember?" Scott smirked, "I'll take that as a no,"

"So how the hell did I 'burst my Repercussion', exactly?"

"You really don't remember anything, do you?" Scott sighed. Actually, I could remember odd little bits of it again. Like the motorbike – geez, that still really hurts. And I could remember making a shitty crate stairs since I thought somebody was too thick to be able to work out another way up to wherever I was building the stairs to. Couldn't remember who it was for though. And something about making probes, but that was probably just Brains getting excited about something that was, to me, pointless. It might've even been him talking about EOS' new probe. But telling Scott those three things would probably make me look stupid and/or wouldn't make any sense. "Basically," Scott continued, "You went off when I thought you were asleep and you got yourself in an explosion. And then you managed to rip the skin where you had the Repercussion. And you've got a few cuts and loads of grazes. That one looks a little bad," Scott touched my forehead, and when he did I immediately flinched. God, that part's really sensitive.

"Yeah, let's not touch 'that one'," I curled up a little bit more as Scott half-laughed, half-sighed, "How long was I out?"

"'Bout four hours maybe? I dunno. Virgil's getting pissy at me for no apparent reason and not telling me anything about your stats. I've been sitting here for about forty minutes – Virgil wouldn't let me in and I spent ages trying to convince John to cover for me. I literally had to go through the other medical room to get here. That's how protective your sibling's getting," Scott shrugged. I mean, Virgil wasn't _my_ sibling, I mean, they're all my siblings and I definitely didn't _own_ him, but it was just something that one of Jeff's friends said that just stuck even to today. I mean, I saw where he was coming from by saying we each had siblings – it simply meant we had siblings we spent most of our time with, or the sibling we were most commonly paired up with. Like, it was Scott and John, which made sense since they were both oldest out of us lot I guess, then Gordon and Alan, which I guess also made sense since they were the both youngest. Virgil was kind of left out, even though if I didn't know them I would've guessed Virgil and Gordon as the next eldest. But no, it was actually Virgil who didn't really have a 'sibling'. So it was alright for me when I first came to the island – there wasn't (usually) anybody constantly around him to cheer him on to do anything against me like, I dunno, throw me in a pool after I had a night terror–like dream that made me keep having flashbacks of my mother's death. And Virgil wasn't entirely eager to, like, do anything dumb – he was kind of quiet, like me, and even though he was quiet because of him usually concentrating on painting or drawing or making clay models or whatever, it was nice not to constantly chat. And I guess he kind of enjoyed that element of no constant chat too, since he was the only one who would willingly talk to me or do something that kids normally do like play videogames or cards or something for the first two months of the time I was on the island, or at least without being told by Jeff or Grandma to talk to me. Okay, maybe the fact that Jeff yelled at our other four brothers after they threw me in the pool had a _little_ something to do with how they wouldn't talk to me, but still, having grown up in near isolation for a lot of my life… It was nice to have a sibling 'left', especially considering Virge didn't want me to be someone I wasn't. I mean, at the time I placed a bet that staying with Jeff wouldn't last more than a year before I was chucked out onto the streets again. But it did last. And this whole bond thing with me and Virgil has lasted until now. Even if it means Virgil won't let people in to see me under these circumstances. Oh well, I wouldn't have him any other way, I wouldn't have any of the Tracy brothers any other way. Not for the world.

"Four hours?" I whispered, surprised by how long I was asleep. That was short, considering last time I was asleep for, like, seven hours straight. I like that, though. The less time sleeping, the more realistic to me.

"Well, more like five, actually," Scott shrugged.

"Five hours too much for me," I sighed, trying to sit up. I could literally feel where the stitches were in my side. Well, isn't that disgusting?

"Oi, what did I say about no sitting up?" Scott pushed me back down, and that was when I finally realised the pain of having stitches, or rather, a partially-open hole in your side. I had to close my eyes and stay still for a minute just to stop feeling so light-headed from how painful it was. "You okay?" I could hear Scott standing somewhere over her, but even if I wanted to reply I couldn't. "Kayo?" I managed to make out a feeble excuse of a nod, curling up a bit more in the duvet. Well, if I ended up blacking out, it's not like I'm not in the right place, hey? "Kayo? You okay?" Yes, perfectly fine, thanks. But standing over me and seemingly yelling doesn't help. I somehow managed to crank my eyes open, and I suddenly jumped back when I saw a massive lilac-blue smudge in front of me, only to realise it was Scott just sitting down on the bed.

"Hey, it's okay," Scott whispered. Am I the only one here sensing a certain someone being mildly, just mildly, patronising? Actually, yeah, I am, because I'm the only other person here. That kind of makes sense. "Kayo, listen, okay? Kayo you can't just keep running off and doing things like that! What the hell would've happened if we didn't see you missing? No, seriously, what the hell would've happened?" I wasn't in the mood for this. As in, I seem to be saying this a lot, but couldn't it just be a bit later? Apparently not. I knew he was still talking, I could hear him, but I couldn't even concentrate on what he was saying. There was still quite a bit of pain in my side, but I couldn't really be bothered about that anymore. This whole thing was just… Utterly draining. Really draining. I mean, I couldn't blame Scott for it all, but everything was just making me feel like the definition of drained. "Kayo?" I suddenly realised that Scott was shaking my shoulder. He obviously must've noticed I was daydreaming. "Hey, you're not even listening, are you?" He whispered, looking slightly annoyed. Oh, god, he was annoyed. That's a bad sign if there ever was one.

"Hey, scoot," Scott muttered as I slid back a bit as he sat down on the bed with his legs on the bed, only for me to realise afterwards I was opening up to a patronising chat. Great. I literally just walked into that one. "Kayo? Kayo, you can't just keep running off and doing your own missions, okay? This isn't the GDF, we don't go after criminals, yeah? We _help_ people"

"But most of the time it _does_ help people," I sighed, When was the last time we had one of these chats? The patronising ones that are debating on whether my job with covert ops was 'useful'? I think it was when I took back a coding device, and if my memory served right you could do anything with it, from hacking into governments to ordering fifty pizzas from Domino's free. Hmm, it was quite a progression between when the last patronising chat occurred over a legitimate action. The spark of the chat, I mean. From taking back a coding device to getting exploded. I mean, that's worth something right? Maybe? Potentially?

"I don't think they _do_ help people, Kayo," Scott sighed. No, they did help people. Because half the time the goons/workers/whatever they're called these days who help villains aren't actually that bad. They're only working there because its easy money, or they need to feed or care for their family – I spoke to one guy who actually worked for the Hood, and he only wanted to get enough money to pay for his daughter's scoliosis operation (which means to straighten her spine since it's got a deformity, in this case to put two rods either side of her spine). I might've felt bad for him, but then again, he _did_ try to shoot me. Twice. Maybe three times, but that third one was with crap aim. But now he's got a job as a GDF soldier and the operation was paid for, _and_ the GDF were supplying aftercare for the operation for free. Did that help the person? Did it? I mean, it seems not. Another person went from just about paying the rent of his house and getting groceries to buying their own house, getting their dream job, and raising two kids happily. Did the job transfer thorough the GDF help him? Apparently not. But, hey, would Scott listen? Hmm, maybe. But definitely not now. "Kayo? Are you even listening?" Scott suddenly said, which made me jump. Was he talking again? God, I wasn't even aware of it this time. I mean, last time I heard it as background noise, but I wasn't even aware of it! "Kayo, going out with you is really hard when you keep doing things like this," I just stared up at him, seeing an oppotunerty. "What?"

"So we're 'going out' now?" I smirked. When it came to that love thing, I only recalled just talking about it, as well as a few comments based around it. Well, yeah, I'd also assumed that we were at the going-out stage, since I didn't know what the 'boundaries' are with this whole romance thing, but who doesn't love the startled face that all the Tracy's have after asking a question like that?

"I… Um…" Scott stammered. God, the face was priceless.

"I guess we _are_ going out now, then," I shrugged, then patted the pillow, "You gunna lay down or not?"

"Is that your way of saying you want cuddles?" Scott sighed, probably due to relief, sliding down a bit more.

"Well, no, I just prefer it when you aren't leaning over me and talking. But now you offered it," I shrugged, "Are you actually pissed off with me?" 

"Language," Scott sighed, "Well, it wasn't exactly the best news in the world to hear at early o' clock, love,"

"So, that a yes, you pi-" I paused after seeing the look I got from Scott, "…Annoyed?" I plopped my head down on Scott's shoulder, feeling the effects of the sedative that was probably still in the stupid IV. I mean, I wasn't _tired_ tired, more _feeling worn out_ tired.

"Maybe less annoyed, more worried."

"Worried?" I almost squeaked. Worried? I thought he was just pissed off I wasn't doing rescues whenever I did anything like covert ops!

"Yeah, 'course I was," Scott paused, "Did you actually think I wouldn't be?" Well, wasn't that a question and a half? I just shrugged, pretending to make it look like I was tired, well, tired to the state I wanted to fall asleep.

"Is that you saying you're tired or saying you're bored?" Scott whispered.

"I'm not bored," I muttered. But I wouldn't deny the tiredness. Well, at least the tiredness that came with being locked in a medical room and being forced to lay down tired.

"Really? You sure? Because I'm pretty damn sure some of what I just said must've been cheesy." Scott shrugged, "I dunno. I've never really done this with anyone. Ever."

"Yeah, okay," I rolled my eyes. A fine piece of bullshit if I ever did see it.

"Oi, what does that mean?" Scott looked down at me.

"Oh, please, we so much as go in to any public place and three quarters of the girls there perve over you!"

"Well, yeah, but I never took any interest in them! If you ask me they're about as desperate as bleached whales trying to be sluts, and the fact that there's three quarters of them out of the people there makes it even worse."

"Ooh, you just offended Sarah there Scotty," I smirked. One of the many Sarah's I knew, in particular the one I mentioned, was a real bitch. We originally met her after Jeff went missing because she was in the group who was meant to be helping us look for her. Unfortunately, this Sarah was a fat brat who was only in for the money. I was ready to punch her since I met her quite frankly, but after a few weeks of her 'working' on the case karma came back on her like a bitch. She was specialising in using chemicals to analyse the evidence, and one day she was using bleach. And just when she was showing off to Virgil and slagging me off (why does everybody immediately slag off a guy's sister if they fancy said guy?) Aaaand then karma made its appearance when she lost her grip on the bottle and ended up getting a bleach burns on both her arms and her stomach. The fact that she reminded all of us of a whale gave her the nickname bleached whale. Maybe I should feel sorry for her. Then again, she was a perfect arrogant brat, and she slagged me off at every single opportunity.

"She deserved every single thing that happened to her, you know," Scott laughed quietly, "So I'm doing alright at this, then?"

"How the hell am I supposed to know? That's your speciality mate," I shrugged, pulling the blanket up to my neck.

"You cold?" Scott asked.

"A little, I guess,"

"Oh, grand. You finally realised you actual body temperature. Virgil's actually going to rejoice when he hears."

"Wanna place bets?" I smirked, straightening up a bit.

"You call him in whilst I'm still here and…" 

"And?" I asked slightly smugly.

"And you don't get any more cuddles."

"But you're warm," I muttered. I mean, I wasn't wrong! He reminded me of a massive heat packs or a massive hot water bottle. Warm. Very warm.

"Yeah, I can still get up and leave though," Scott smirked. I just blew a raspberry at him. "Aww, how polite of you," Scott whispered. "Now are you going to go to sleep?"

"Why does everybody want me asleep?" I sighed, rolling my eyes.

"Because we'd prefer it if you slept and got energy instead of, I dunno, us having to give you, like steroids or something?"

"Steroids are a weird concept…" 

"Nope. You've already ruined the concept of trees and social media for me, please don't ruin the concept of steroids." Scott stared down at me.

"Well, yeah, but they _are_ a weird concept!"

I know they are, but you should be sleeping so we don't have to use the weird-concept steroids on you."

"Not tired," I lied.

"Fine, let's make a deal. I go on the film channel and find a film for us to watch if you try to go to sleep."

"Fine," I shrugged. I mean, I doubted I'd actually fall asleep, but still. I guess it'd be one of the only times I'd be able to spend time with Scott, well, like _this_ anyway, whilst we were still presumably keeping it a secret. I may as well take the chance.

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Wow, I haven't updated in almost a month. Sorry guys :/ . I've actually been given a book deal, so I've spent all my time on the book without realising I didn't actually finish off this fanfic. Whoops. So to answer the comments that I received from anonymous guests (bear in mind these have been deleted due to some extremely rude language) I am not dead, I am not ignoring you and I am not searching for attention. Put simply, I am trying to make sure this book's good since I don' want to let the publishers down. Anyway, sorry for that little rant, but I just thought I'd make it clear. Also, just a few other things to say. The promised date for me publishing will have to be taken off for now as, as already stated, nearly all my focus is going into the book, but once I sort out a way to juggle finishing this fanfic off and sorting out another one (potentially) with writing out the chapters for my new book, I may or may not release another promised date. If I do, though, it'll probably be on XXX day every fortnight or something. But, hey, plans may change. This also means there'll probably be a few more typos than usual.

Also, just thought I'd throw it out there for anybody who didn't know but Thunderbirds Are Go have announced that Series 2 will be released in the UK in October 2016 (this month!). Just thought I'd throw that out there, and once – or if – I get a specific date I shall tell you.

Anyway, if you want to see anything come up or you want to see something in another fanfic please tell me in the comments below and I will update soon hopefully :).


	31. Chapter 31 - Alfie

Chapter 31 – Alfie

"So that's it," I sat back in my chair, feeling slightly fatigued. I had explained what happened to Lila for the fourth time. First time I explained the situation on how she got here, she was half asleep. Second time, she just didn't get it. Third time, she found it more amusing to put two bent straws together and blow through them like she was some sort of helicopter. Fourth time, I think – _think_ – she got it. But seeing my luck, I'm not going to place any bets on it all sinking in.

"Sooo," Lila spoke up for the first time since I began my explaining quest, "psychos have no better things to do with their lives, they had some weird-ass warehouse with – presumably – explosives, said psychos got pissed off with us, said psychos blew us up,"

"Let's just go with that," I sighed, deciding that explaining this once again would be the square root of pointless.

"Do you know who said psychos are?" Lila asked half-heartedly, more focused on the plastic fiddle-toy that Virgil left on the desk. She was currently trying to clip all the pieces into a band so she could fit it around her head.

"Not exactly," I sighed, "We were able to find some half-encrypted code that was protecting some security footage. We weren't able to get all the security footage because somebody deleted the code snippets half way through the time when we were hacking in to the code, but from the bits we could see, there was three guys, John said he recognised one guy – apparently one of the guys, the more… rounded guy who was wearing a suit, was apparently somebody who kept checking in on Kayo when she was in hospital a few days ago. He said is name was Oliver, but when we checked through the old files for the hospital, there was nobody called Oliver. And we checked though the profiles of everyone there including the photos. Nothing," 

"So, basically we don't know any of the guys. Except for one guy's face?" Lila asked.

"Basically,"

"And he could just have a hologram to either prevent us from seeing the real him OR he's just been walking around for _x_ amount of time as said guy?"

"Probably," I shrugged, turning around slightly to listen to the voices outside the room. I'm pretty sure there was at least two people outside – either that or one of the Tracy's was nailing ventriloquism – and they sounded like they were getting closer.

"Who that?" Lila asked quite loudly. God, she could be blunt some times.

"That us," Virgil opened the door, sliding in to the room with John following him. I noticed John trip over the tiny slope of a step that led up to the room, but I decided against anything about it.

"Ooh, you could be really helpful Virgil," Lila sat up slightly.

"Really? Why? Do you need some sort of medical help or…?"

"Do you have two more of these tube-y, cube-y things?" Lila held up her loop of the fiddle toy blocks, "Preferably purple, black and white if you have them."

"Of course," Virgil rolled his eyes, hiding a smirk as be bent down to pick up a small wooden box on one of the wooden tables and handing it to Lila. As soon as Lila realised it was filled with more of the fiddle toy cubes, she literally started grinning like a Cheshire Cat and began making a new and even bigger chain.

"Alfie, I'm afraid you're not getting your wife back. She became a victim of the fiddle toy." Virgil shook his head as John sat down on the end of the bed, clearly not dealing well with the sudden amount of gravity difference from Thunderbird 5 and Earth.

"There was a reason why I normally stayed with the kids at pre-school – and it wasn't because Lila worked earlier hours than me," I gestured to Lila who had literally blanked the whole world out due to the fiddle toys like somebody who should probably be in preschool. I turned back to Virgil, "How are the other girls doing?"

"Colonel Casey should wake up soon since the anaesthetic is due to wear off in an hour, maybe? Penny woke up briefly but she was out quite quickly again. I got Gordon to keep an eye on her just in case she wakes up again. Lila seems to be good," Virgil nodded at Lila who had now finished her headband fiddle toy and was trying to make something that only looked like a demented panda, "And Kayo… I'm not quite sure. I'm just going to check on her," Virgil walked over to the door that linked Lila's medical room to Kayo's. And that's when I remembered – I was meant to be covering for Scott. Shit.

"Hey, Virge, can you just check the saline solution is good?" I was trying to grasp together every excuse as I could to stop him from going in there. Virgil just squinted over at the IV bag before shrugging.

"Nah, looks good," Virgil shrugged, pushing the door open. Well, that seems problematic.

"Scott, what the hell are you doing in here?!" Yep. Very problematic. Let's hope I'm not for dinner tonight on Tracy Island.

"Aaaand the shit just hit the fan," John sighed, shaking his head as both John and I got up to head over to Kayo's medical room. When we got in, we saw Scott sitting on the bed with his legs kicked up on the bed and a holo projector on the screen, and Kayo curled up under the duvet and thermal blanket that Virgil left with her, with a colouring book and some colouring pencils on her lap and her in-ear headphones plugged into another hologram projector that was sat behind her.

"Virge, chill," Scott sighed, "I was just keeping an eye on her, that's all."

"Yeah, well, we've all seen how good you are at that," Virgil said sarcastically, probably as a reference to the explosion incident. Yikes, talk about feisty. Virgil sat down on the bed, now completely ignoring Scott and focusing on Kayo. "Hey," He flicked one of her headphones out so she was aware he was there "How you feeling?"

"Good, I guess," She shrugged, taking out the other headphone and colouring in a page in a book.

"What'cha got there?" Virgil stared down at the book as Kayo closed it and handed it to him. He read out what was on the front page: "Release Your Anger: Swear Words and Insults to Release Your Anger through Colouring."

"Yup. My favourite page is -"

"You know what? I'm good not knowing what's in this book," Virgil shook his head and handed it back to her so she could continue colouring in her page. "Do you remember anything? About what happened?"

"Sorta?" She sighed, "I think I do, but I'm not sure if it's total bullshit or not,"

"Hey, I'm sure your brain isn't capable of making such graphic images sis," Virgil said, but I could clearly see on her face that she wasn't brought by it, that there was clearly something else bothering her. Hmm. Interesting. "Anyway, where'd you get the colouring book from?"

"Lila gave it to me for my last birthday. I hid it 'cause I didn't want Grandma to kill me or cook me or something for having it,"

"I heard that," Grandma came in to the room with a plate of black lumps – which I could only assume was these infamous cookies I'd heard so much about – staring at the colouring book which Kayo shoved under the duvet. "So, which _is_ your favourite one, kid?"

"I dunno," Kayo shrugged, laying down on the bed as Grandma sat down on the side of the bed.

"Kayo, you _do_ realise if you say what your favourite one is you _will_ technically be able to swear in front of Grandma, right?" John added, leaning against the doorway.

"And you _do_ realise if I _do_ swear in front of Grandma she will have the right to yell at me, right? It's a package deal mate," Kayo sighed, avoiding eye contact with Grandma.

"Mmmhmm," Grandma shrugged, "So, Alfie, John, you said you had a plan about how you'll find the people behind that attack? Any development yet?"

"Well, a bit," John shrugged, gesturing at me to continue.

"Yeah," I decided to join in for once, "I got a mate to get forensics on the place to try and find whatever the guys were trying to do in this warehouse place. We're doing a probe test and a lie detector to see if any other members of the GDF are probes or related to probe dudes. And then hopefully following those trails we work out who's behind this,"

"Okay, good," Virgil said, "So where do you start?"

"Well, first of all, we need to wait for the data to come in from the GDF soldiers I sent out, then we scan the data and find the weaker points," I said, then added something on as an afterthought, "But I feel like we'll have to wait for the girls to recover before we take any serious action. I mean, we probably won't be able to deal with the aftermath of this without them,"

"Okay," Scott shrugged, "Then let's get started,"

/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~

Ouch, I really haven't updated in a while. Oops. Sorry guys, I've been really busy recently, especially since I just got a helper dog for my blood sugar levels (who may I add is as spoilt as heck), and the book I'm working on as well as sorting out my cousin's birthday prank and, of course, Christmas. But, hey, I'm back from all the random stuff that's been happening now, I apologize for the inconvenience for a) not uploading in ages, b) having such a short chapter, c) for starting a fanfic in potentially the busiest year of my life and d) for starting it in the year when I knew my blood sugar was starting to change as quickly as I get bored (which is a freaking LOT). But hopefully 2017 will be better, hey? Anyway, there'll only be a few chapters left, mostly to tie up all the loose ends, and then a new story (I think I said this before now but hey, just so you know). But anyway, I hope you all are doing well, I hope you're enjoying this, and if you also want to see anything in the future fanfic please let me know.

And, of course, have a merry Christmas and a happy New Year :)


	32. Chapter 32 - Gordon

Chapter 32 – Gordon

Forewarning: If you have not watched the new series of Thunderbirds Are Go, particularly the first one (aka Earthbreaker), do NOT read this chapter if you want to stay spoiler-free (I mean, unless you want spoilers, in which case go ahead). I have given everyone enough time in my opinion, I mean, the first volume is out and has been out for a while now. And just a future note – as of this chapter, there will be references to Series 2, so if you haven't seen it then… welp, that seems issueous. But seriously, I promise Series 2 of Thunderbirds Are Go is good :) Anyway, I'll stop babbling, and let you get to the story.

 _6 weeks later_

I think it was safe to say that these last few weeks were quite busy, to say the least, and I could not be happier to have a sleep-in tonight.

For one, Kayo could finally get away from Virgil's medical plan and the infirmary after her fantastical move with getting shot. I supposed it was briefly nice to have somebody not making cheeky threats at me when I was considering nicking her cans of Vimto / Pepsi / Sprite / whatever she had, or maybe when I was threatening to vandalise their ship, but you know what? For once I think I actually enjoyed somebody threatening me again, even if it meant getting shoved on my backside in one of her Wing Chun Lessons (aka I-fancy-watching-you-fail-at-martial-arts-so-I'm-going-to-beat-you-lot-up-with-the-excuse-of-it-being-a-lesson). It was also pretty safe to say that Kayo was giving Virgil a run for his money in terms of recovery; I mean, how many times do you see a girl who's been shot and in recovery for _x_ amount of time go running around the support beams of the hangar, shooting Virgil - who was trying to get her back in the infirmary - with a water pistol? But, hey, as busy as it had been, it was quite nice to be back to normal.

Another thing was the other girls recovered from the explosion at the warehouse. I suppose that also classes as the first point I just made, but whilst Kayo was literally freed from the medical restrictions today, Lila, Penelope and Colonel Casey were okay after a week or so. I mean, yeah, Virgil kept checking up on them – and who could blame him? He could only play nurse every now and again – but otherwise they were all good, only a few bruises and a small handful of burns to look after. But that was another thing I was glad to be back to normal.

As well as that, the GDF had somewhat come closer to finding the guys behind all the random things that had happened over the last God knows how long, or at least, thought they had something, including the probes, which we found out after Colonel Casey had recalled once she recovered enough, and as it turned out over 2,500 probes had taken place as GDF workers, with most of the people who were replaced by probes found in a contained, 30-story hexagonal building. They were completely fine, honestly they were quite well-looked after, but any evidence was wiped clean, and everyone forgot how they'd gotten there. What's worse, they were in a secluded area and somehow blocked from any means of communication. A GDF worker only found the suspicious building after teaching his nephew to drive in a supposedly abandoned field. The fact there was no evidence meant that the only hope was left in that warehouse. After finding whatever forensic samples and snippets of CCTV and witnesses and whatever else they could get access of, and having most people in the GDF (including Lila and Alfie) become Sherlock Holmes with the analysis of these little bits of evidence, not to mention getting a bit cranky after the first few weeks of the extended shifts, they'd eventually come up with a short list of possible names – well, they say short, I say the length of Grandma's shopping list, which is saying something in itself – of who the people could've been behind this. They did show it to us, and Kayo did save it somewhere, but none of us have looked at it since. I could only remember a small handful of names off my head – one guy was Fen O'Neale, another was Ed Gnash, another Jonas Mars, Graham Shepard and then Noah Legend. Those were the only ones I was confident about remembering, but I'm pretty sure there was also a Trace Cyrus and Stephen Delfino. Then again, that could easily be a lie – I wouldn't be so surprised if they were names of people I met on rescues rather than potentially murderous psychos, which would be bad things to mix up.

Speaking of a rescue, I'd just come back from one. Well, a rescue which we weren't normally meant to do. Long story short, some swimmer thought they saw a body trapped beneath some rubble in the sea, called International Rescue – at just before twelve o' clock I may add, and I don't know about you but that's _definitely_ sleep time for me – and I had to move SIXTY KILOS WORTH OF RUBBLE, and was there a human down there after all? Well, I think you got the correct answer from the rhetorical question, but no, there was _not_ a human. There _was_ , however, a seal fast asleep in the caved-out rubble pile, and it was a young one, too. Seeing things like this only made me even more concerned by how much rubbish was being dumped into the sea and how it could have harmed the seal if he started choking on a bit or got his head stuck or something in that little makeshift cubby hole of debris, and additionally more concerned about people's common sense, on whether they should check to see if it's a person trapped, or a seal quite happily asleep under the rubble which had formed into a cubby hole, before they called the rescue services, and if said swimmers can't get said seal out comfortably and/or don't want to harm him/her, call the GDF who are better with animals and have the specialist equipment for this sort of thing. I mean, from the swimmer's angle you could have seen that it was a seal from like, a solid five metres away – that distance wasn't even _close_ to the rubble! The only reason I proceeded to get the seal out of his little den is because I wanted to make sure he didn't choke on the debris, whether it was in International Rescue's guidelines to help animal or not. But, hey, at least I had a grey blubbery buddy who followed me half the way back to Thunderbird 2, I guess. And at least now I could finally get some rest.

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I couldn't remember how or when I fell asleep, but I only realised that I had fallen asleep when I was woken up by a pillow smashing over my face. I tried to make out who it was, but that failed for the first few seconds until I saw a smear of blonde hair and a green shirt. Alan? Really? At this time in the morning? Granted, I already knew I slept in through the rays of light filtering past my curtains, but on most days it was rare if Alan got up before half eleven, or some other stupidly late time.

"What do you want?" I glared at him shortly before sitting up, deciding it's be hard to try and sleep again with Alan already up.

"Come look!" Alan practically jumped to the door before jumping up and down on the spot, gesturing for me to come.

I swear I'll slap whoever it is that gave him sugar.

"I swear to God, if you woke me up for another Kung Fu movie…"

"No, not that!" Alan rolled his eyes, pretending that wasn't ever a possibility – something we all know would never happen, "No, seriously, come look!"

"Alright, fine, just give me five minutes to get changed then," I rolled my eyes before getting up and shoving Alan out the room, locking the door behind him. I already knew he was going to harass someone else, probably Virgil if he hasn't already, considering it was – waaaiiiittt, where's the clock? – 8:07 in the morning and Virgil wouldn't be up just yet after last night's late rescue.

No, really, I'm slapping whoever gave Alan sugar today.

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"Alright Alan, what did you want?" I slumped down on the couch, still not happy with the abrupt awakening I got this morning.

"Look," Alan opened the main projector to show a spider-like machine in a deserted area, with a massive crack of land beneath it.

"Wait, was that an earthquake beneath the machine? Do we need to go rescue it?" I asked, still trying to work out what it was, or why the heck anyone would want something like, well, _that_.

"No, the _machine_ broke the earth, not an earthquake. ." Brains came out into the main lounge, followed by Scott, Virgil and Kayo.

"Seriously? How? And why?" I asked the top three questions that came into my mind, trying to avoid the rest scrambling out.

"We d-don't know yet, but we're t-trying to work it out." Brains brought up a slide to try and analyse the mechanisms on the machine.

"Are we going to go check it out?" Alan asked, obviously eager to have a bit of action after The Hood was arrested. I mean, he already knew he probably wouldn't go, but still, even I have to admit sometimes it's fun to just watch things because you always get every end of things.

"Not sure yet. John's talking to the GDF," Kayo said, watching Brain's analysis as Alan sunk down, disappointed. The GDF normally stopped us from anything dangerous (well, not like Kayo or Penelope listened), and would no doubt stop us if they were on the scene as well.

"Although," Kayo looked over at Alan, who looked bluntly disappointed, "There was three people who reported finding an ore of sorts – scandium ore, I believe – and we think they may have fallen down the crack, so we still _might_ have a rescue to do"

"There you go," I looked over to Alan who had regained all of his eagerness, "You might be able to watch this."

"WOOHO-" Alan cheered down my ear, making me promptly smash a pillow in his face.

"Nope," I hissed. Yeah, if anyone hadn't guessed yet, I'm still not properly awake.

"Also, while we're waiting," Virgil said, immediately staring at Kayo, "If you come with us, you are NOT to over-do it on your side, okay?"

"Fine," Kayo sighed, watching Brain' screen again, "But you DO realise it's technically been healed for at LEAST two weeks now, right? And I'm still putting the cream on it so there's almost no way for it to 'over-do it' right?"

"Yes, but if I have to come back to find your side bleeding again so help me I'll-"

"Oh jeez. Take. A. Chill. Pill" Kayo shook her head, "But you DO realise there's more chances of Scott getting pregnant than that happening, right?"

"Kayo, Scott doesn't even have a-"

" _Exactly_ , point proven."

"Fine, okay," Virgil gave in, "Your health. And your funeral if Grandma sees you overdid it."

"Ehhh, it'll be fine," Kayo shrugged, just before John called to the Island.

"Guys," John said, making sure he had everyone's attention, "We have to be careful and the GDF will be there, but we're heading in.

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Sorry there was such a long uploading time again :/ A lot of really unexpected things happened – there was four weddings I was invited to last minute, a birth (making me an aunt), as well as having to move. And also, while I did share these facts with a few readers who messaged me to ask, there's been something that I didn't say, purely because this was touch and go as to whether or not I'd keep him and I didn't want anyone to get their hopes up, but I've officially adopted – and will be keeping - a stray puppy, who I found when he used me as an umbrella when I was gardening in said new house and it started raining. Sorry about this, I don't want to keep throwing this around, but I swear when my second fanfic starts I will try, keyword try, to get a better schedule for uploading.

Thank you guys for reading, please comment or PM me anything you want to see in the future and I will see you when I upload the Finale chapter! :)


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